Bill Morrison, who was recently promoted to executive director of Job and Family Services, is seeking innovative proposals from community partners. One idea he particularly likes: mentors for those receiving public assistance.
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Mentors have been successful in Commissioner Cindy Carpenter’s Motherhood and Maternity Addiction Services (MAMAS) program to get pregnant addicts clean. Carpenter said she thinks it’s “awesome” Morrison is seeking mentors under the new plan.
“We credit our success of the MAMAS program largely due to … the mentors, really women who are engaged and they are walking the women in recovery through engaging back in their life toward independence,” Carpenter said.
In February the commissioners questioned whether they should renew a $1.75 million contract with Community Behavioral Health for job help services, noting times have changed drastically in the job market since they first reached the deal with CBH 13 years ago.
CBH served 853 clients from March 2016 to January and had a job retention rate of 69 percent. The agency helped clients with physical, mental and addiction barriers, helped people get their GED and other training and partnered with Butler County RTA for those with transportation issues.
READ MORE: County taking another look at job help provider contract
On Thursday, commissioners approved a request for proposals (RFP) to replace those services. Morrison said he’s already had discussions with organizations like SELF, treatment provider Sojourner and others who want to be part of creative ways to help.
He said one thing must change: the assessment process. He said people are given a form that asks them about addiction problems, questions people usually lie about.
“Since it’s kind of a self referral thing then those people, because they didn’t say they had a problem like that, would be forwarded over to” OhioMeansJobs, Morrison said. “We would be trying to connect them to employers, so we were presenting employers with people they could not hire because they couldn’t pass a drug screen or didn’t have the wherewithal to show up for work.”
He said the RFPs will require clinical assessments.
Morrison envisions having several different providers for the new plan.
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As part of this new plan, Morrison hired long time community servant Kathy Becker, who used to work for Transitional Living Inc., a mental health and homeless outreach provider in the county. She shocked the commissioners when she told them what happened when she went through the process of applying for public assistance, so she could assess the system for her new part-time role.
“I said to a person when I walked in that I had been diagnosed with bipolar and I’d like to get a job, and the person told me that I really shouldn’t apply for job, I should look at getting benefits,” she said. “So I said, ‘No I want to work,’ and they said ‘No you’d probably be better off with Social Security.’ So there was a little bit of push back with a disability to look at.”
Becker said the person wasn’t a county employee and is no longer in the position.
Becker also told the commissioners they need to consider providing job help in Middletown and other areas of the county that are not near Fairfield where the OhioMeansJobs office is.
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The county temporarily extended its current contract with CBH in February, but the contract will end in August. Officials at CBH told the Journal-News previously they will not be submitting a proposal for the new program.
“The RFP is for a program we have been doing successfully for more than 13 years,” she said. “We really feel like the success of the program comes from the continuity of care that happens when you have all of the components in one place.”
Commissioner T.C. Rogers said he was glad to see Morrison is not taking a “this is the way we’ve always done it” approach to his new job. Morrison said this effort isn’t going to easy.
“This is going to be hard to figure out how to do,” Morrison said. “But it’s worthy of our best effort.”
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