April proclaimed Child Abuse Prevention Month in Highland County

Highland County commissioners Brad Roades, Terry Britton and David Daniels recognized several representatives of Highland County Job & Family Services with a proclamation in honor of Child Abuse Prevention Month during their Wednesday, April 2 meeting.

Child Abuse Prevention Month is observed nationally each April. According to childwelfare.gov, “National Child Abuse Prevention Month recognizes the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect. Prevention services and supports developed by this collaboration can help to protect children and strengthen families.”

In recognition of this annual observance, Highland County JFS Director Jeremy Ratcliff brought several members of the office staff. He described their respective roles in child welfare at the agency and serving the 129 children currently in their custody.

“The work they do, as you know, is very impactful,” Ratcliff said. “They’re some of the most dedicated people I've ever worked with, so I thought it would be nice to just come up here and have you meet them — the boots on the ground that do the hard work — and have them be recognized as representatives of the agency.”

Those individuals include:

• Assistant Director Gene Myers, who previously served as interim director of the agency prior to commissioners hiring Ratcliff in May 2021. Ratcliff described Myers — who also previously served as Lawrence County JFS director — as “a jack of all trades, master of every single one of them.

“He's just a blessing to have at our agency,” Ratcliff said. “We're so fortunate to have him.”

• Rebecca Souther, supervisor of the agency’s “ongoing services unit,” who has been with JFS for 22 years.

“When a family has been determined to be in need of additional services — something that can’t be kind of remedied in a month or two — the cases get transferred over to Rebecca, and her responsibility is to work with the family and the children while they're in foster care to get the family in a better place where they can be reunified,” Ratcliff said.

• JR Ball, who has worked in the placement and adoption unit for over four years.

“All the children that come into care have to find placement, and he's primarily the person responsible for placing the 129 children that we have right now in our care,” Ratcliff said. “It could be relative placement, kinship placement. About 34 percent of our kids right now are in relative placement. They're not in actual foster care.

“One of the things he's taken on recently is family finding. If the case is under Rebecca's supervision or case work, and it doesn't look like the children are going to be able to be reunified, JR’s back here with family trees calling eight different states to try to find family for these children, as opposed to them going into permanent custody.”

• Hannah Workman, who has worked with the agency for approximately three years as one of four intake investigators.

“When the phone rings and we get a report of abuse, neglect or dependency, and we screen it in for investigation, it’s her responsibility to go out, knock on the door and investigate what's going on,” Ratcliff said. “[Intake investigators] make recommendations to the courts, to the prosecutor's office, to CPS administration on what should happen to keep this child safe in the interim while the investigation is occurring.”

Britton thanked the group and the rest of the JFS staff for their efforts.

“We appreciate everything that you guys do every day,” Britton said. “I know that job is pretty tough at times, and so we just want to say thank you for what you do.”

After hearing from the JFS representatives, Roades read the proclamation recognizing April 2025 as Child Abuse Prevention Month in Highland County.

To report suspected child abuse and/or neglect, you can call (937) 393-3111. You can find answers to frequently asked questions about the reporting process, as well as more information about the Child Protection unit and details on how to become a foster or adoptive parent, at http://www.highlandjfs.org.

For more from Wednesday's meeting, go to:

https://highlandcountypress.com/news/commissioners-discuss-issue-2-perm…

and

https://highlandcountypress.com/news/commissioners-issue-national-crime….

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