Ohio program ensures ‘No Wrong Door’ for families in need of assistance

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WASHINGTON - A new podcast explores an Ohio county's efforts to bring service providers together to ensure that families in crisis receive the help they need. The "No Wrong Door" model is already making big impacts in Washington County, Ohio, where the Family and Children First Council (WCFCFC) is building partnerships that raise awareness of community resources.

Talk Justice host Lee Rawls spoke to Megan Gilliam, WCFCFC's No Wrong Door Project Coordinator; Kate Enger, Resource Navigator at Legal Aid of Southeast and Central Ohio (LASCO), and Robin Bozian, an attorney who spent 44 years working at LASCO and still volunteers with the organization in retirement.

WCFCFC's mission is to support local families' well-being, Gilliam explained. The Council noticed that when families were not getting the help they needed, it was often not because resources didn't exist, but because people did not know how to access them.

Gilliam recalled that when WCFCFC Director Cindy Davis told her about the No Wrong Door model, she "jumped up out of [her] chair."

"I didn't know that there was another way of doing things," Gilliam said. "I had been on the other side of the street, so to speak, and had struggled to access services and not known where to turn."

Previously, Gilliam had struggled with a domestic violence and child custody issue for which she couldn't find assistance. When she reached out to local agencies and organizations, they were sympathetic but unable to offer solutions.

"The biggest thing is my daughter's safety was compromised, and I didn't have the money to get an attorney," Gilliam said. "This isn't just a couple of weeks - this is years of fighting. I didn't understand the legal system."

"I assumed that what's right is right and justice will prevail on its own, but without evidence and an attorney and building a case, sometimes that's difficult to prove," she continued. "And it was a heartbreaking few years trying to ensure both of our safety."

Gilliam did not turn to legal help initially because someone had incorrectly told her that legal services organizations do not handle custody cases. Eventually, she told her story to Bozian, who immediately connected her with LASCO's services. She explained that LASCO "completely changed the trajectory" of her and her daughter's lives. Experiencing it herself has given Gilliam a passion for making the path easier for other families in her community.

"No Wrong Door is very unique because it's not just about sharing resources," Gilliam said. "It's about getting an entire community to come together to ensure that no door is a wrong door when asking for help."

The Council's partners include LASCO, the sheriff's office, multiple health and community centers, government agencies, a food pantry, and the local school district. No Wrong Door brings these organizations together regularly for trainings and events so they can better understand each other's services, address service gaps and learn about trauma-informed customer service.

Bozian and Enger both agreed that the program is making a difference in how service organizations and agencies interact and is improving local families' access to resources.

When Enger began her work at LASCO, she wasn't very familiar with two of the rural counties in her service area. She said that attending a No Wrong Door training "was like opening the door to the county," and that she loves the "sense of ongoing connection between all of the different agencies."

No Wrong Door also provided Enger with Pocket Guides that she distributes to all the families she assists with housing cases.

"We all go through periods where we are overwhelmed, and eviction would absolutely be one of those periods where we need to take a little extra time with people rather than just saying, 'Nope, they don't do that. We don't do that," Enger said, adding that she's able to instead say, "'We can't do that, but here's the folks who can.'"

Bozian explained that it's not uncommon that people have misconceptions about what civil legal services organizations like LASCO provide, and having No Wrong Door is helping to spread the word.

"Having that kind of connection reminds people that we are out there, and there are things that we can do," Bozian said. "I think it helps everybody, but it also helps legal services in identifying and getting the clients in so that we can help them before [their issue] gets too bad."

To hear the rest of this conversation, listen to the full episode of Talk Justice online, on Spotify, YouTube or Apple Podcasts. The podcast is sponsored by LSC's Leaders Council.