How does Stark County work?

Deeply rooted in a strong sense of collaboration, there are four basic elements which are central to the Stark County philosophy:

• interagency collaboration,
• provision of services within the home and community,
• family focus, and
• focusing on strengths.

This philosophy helped Stark County attain its goals, which include providing a unified system of service; providing family-driven services which allow children to remain in their homes and communities to the greatest possible extent; and reducing the number of children in out-of-home and out-of-county placements. In a telephone interview of 122 caregivers, over 80 percent believed that the services their children received were "good" to "excellent," and that the people who helped them would "stick" with them no matter what.

Supports include mental health services at the State Street Middle School in Alliance (the county’s second largest city) and at the Stanton Middle School in Canton (the county’s largest city). The North Lincoln Elementary School in Alliance has successfully addressed student disorder by combining: a proactive, school-wide behavioral plan that is visible throughout the school; training for teachers that enables them to work effectively with students who are behaviorally challenging; socials skills training for students; peer mediation training for a selected group of students; and social service supports from the Family Council. The principal, teachers, and students all attest to the effectiveness of these interventions.

The Summit Elementary School, located in one of the poorest areas of Canton, has successfully included all students in the general education curriculum by combining: (1) a commitment to high academic expectations as embodied in Levin’s model of Accelerated School; (2) a strengths-based approach to education that is visible throughout the school, (3) training for teachers in the model of Accelerated School; (4) extensive outreach to families; and (5) bringing mental health services into the school. Summit, which serves 520 students from preschool to Grade 5, supports these interventions with school-wide incentives that include monthly building-wide awards assemblies, weekly reward activities planned by grade levels, and semester and end-of-year recognition for attendance, citizenship, service, perfect homework, and improved behavior.

Some Stark County school districts (e.g., Canton) employ Family Council Resources selectively. For example, Canton High School employs a team of two youth workers (funded by the council) to prevent adolescents from falling through the cracks. The team works with students who have been unsuccessful in school due to truancy, unruliness, family problems, abuse, emotional, physical, and mental problems, and the loss of parental control. Interventions include crisis intervention at school, home, and the job; family counseling, tracking school progress, proactive pull-outs from school, help with independent living; and reinforcement of positive goal attainment.

Other districts (e.g, Alliance) employ council resources to enhance their work with students. Alliance’s State Street Middle School and Alliance High School (like the North Lincoln Elementary School) work with the council to coordinate social services and to prevent the removal of students from the school. Their activities include: moving services, which were previously located in Canton, into the community; moving Department of Social Services social workers into all schools; offering a seminar on sexual harassment for all sixth to ninth graders; offering a violence-prevention and conflict-resolution course for K-12 students; and working to keep foster children in the community and schools. In addition, the Stanton Middle School in Alliance has brought professional staff from the local mental-health community into the school on a full-time basis. Unlike Alliance’s High School, however, Canton High School has only taken selective advantage of the council’s resources.