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Kyes Home may be used to help families
The proposal will require a zoning change.
EAST PALESTINE — A closed home for girls may become a facility that provides a variety of help to families.
The Columbiana County Department of Job & Family Services closed the Kyes Home last year after voters rejected a levy increase.
The house donated by the Kyes family had been used by the county since the 1950s.
It operated as a licensed group home for girls age 6-18 who were neglected or abused but were not ruled delinquent by authorities. The operation had cost about $240,000 a year but was down to one female resident when it closed.
Eileen Dray-Bardon, director of the county JFS, on Wednesday told the county commissioners that the proposal calls for the house to be renamed the Kyes Family Service Center.
She said the proposed program changes would continue the mission of the Kyes family.
It could house some programs that are already being offered by and paid for by the JFS.
The new services would also allow some workers to move out of the JFS offices in Lisbon, which have electrical and flooding problems. The commissioners are seeking funds to build a new headquarters for the agency in Lisbon.
Changes at Kyes would help move part of its efforts closer to an organization it works with. The JFS uses the Child Advocacy Center in Youngstown, whose doctors make a medical assessment of youths who may have been abused.
Those children could be interviewed at the site by social workers or law enforcement officials.
Though the home is close to Youngstown, there are people involved in such cases from the western portion of the county. Dray-Bardon said those people will not have to drive to East Palestine for service.
To make the program changes, the JFS will have to ask East Palestine City Council to rezone the home as a business.
City Manager Gary Clark said he had not received the request from the county. Clark added that he had heard no community comments, since the proposal is new.
If the project is approved, other possible services could include:
UClasses on independent living for youths age 16 and 17 who are being helped by the JFS.
UProviding required state training for foster parents and child-care providers.
UPossibly providing funding and support services for kinship cases in which a person is caring for the child of a relative.
UA site for court-ordered visitation. Dray-Bardon said that the site would be a helpful environment for such visits because it is a house.
Dray-Bardon said the site could also be used for community forums, such as discussing ways to protect youths using the Internet.
wilkinson@vindy.com