By Madeleine Neal
Although Johnson County ranks 93rd in Iowa when it comes to child abuse and neglect rates, county officials continue to fight the issue by offering funds to child welfare and delinquency programs.In a 2015 report on childhood-abuse statistics, released to The Daily Iowan by Johnson County social-services coordinator Lynette Jacoby, 6,042 cases of child abuse were confirmed in the state of Iowa, 120 in the county. These numbers, however, only reflect reports accepted by state officials.
“The number of juvenile complaints and law violations that law enforcement refers to Juvenile Court Services has decreased 45 percent since 2009,” Jacoby said. “In 2015, Johnson County had 120 confirmed or founded cases of child abuse.”
Though child welfare and childhood delinquency rates are shifting, county officials continue to work toward solutions.
As outlined on its website, the Johnson County program, alongside county stakeholders, works to provide child-welfare and juvenile-delinquency services through input from citizens, consumers, education, health, human services, and the local government. The county promotes child health and safety, family stability, and positive youth development.
In a release on the county website, the county officials reaffirmed an announcement made by the County’s Decategorization Governance Board to allow requests for these programs.
“The Johnson County Decategorization Governance Board announces the release of Request for Proposals to provide programs, services, and projects to address child-welfare and juvenile-delinquency needs in Johnson County and reduce out-of-home placement of children,” the release said.
Jacoby said child-welfare and juvenile-delinquency resources are critical for the county.
“Investing resources in prevention programming and supportive services is critical to improving outcomes for children and families,” she said.
Officials said requests for proposals are available for the in-home family support services, support services for mothers, programming for positive youth development, and family treatment court support services.
The release stated that the Decategorization Board anticipates about $153,000 to fund five to eight projects for programming offered in fiscal 2018.
While the Johnson County Board of Supervisors handle many county matters, Supervisors Rod Sullivan and Lisa Green-Douglass said Jacoby is the county expert.
“How these and other programs are funded and the timing of the availability of these funds gets quite complicated,” Green-Douglass wrote in an email to The Daily Iowan.
Supervisor Vice Chairman Mike Carberry believes investments in such programs is important.
“[It’s] just one more area that the GOP leadership in Des Moines is criminally underfunding,” he said.
