Neighborhood Social Services

Columbus Public Health’s Family Engagement Program is a community-based intervention program that helps families support their child’s success through strong and respectful interventions, groups and program initiatives. The program works with families in many ways to address community challenges and barriers like racial trauma, income disparities, community violence, lack of access to affordable housing, and trauma. The Family Engagement Program works with youth and their families to support their needs by helping families create a roadmap to success.

Storing a gun and ammunition properly protects others from injury and keeps weapons out of the hands of children and others who shouldn’t have them. Columbus Public Health provides free gun safes and lock boxes to our residents. Call Corey L. Ball at 614-645-1941 or email lockssavelives@columbus.gov to learn how you can get a free gun safe/lock box.

Living After Loss provides peer support to families who have lost a loved one to homicide by offering companioning, grief support and case management as they walk with individuals on their journey after loss.

Make a referral for the Living After Loss program. 

Living After Loss is funding by the ADAMH Board of Franklin County.

Mobile Crisis Response and Community Teams offer support directly in the community following a 911 call. They provide in-person assessment and intervention to address a person’s unique needs while in crisis.

Neighborhood Social Work addresses the social determinants of health that impact residents’ health and wellness, including housing, food access and transportation. Through brief case management, staff assesses needs, makes connections to resources, and advocates for clients. Neighborhood Social Work accepts referrals from various partners, holds open hours at several community locations, and operates a 24 hour voicemail line for anyone needing help with community resources.

Call the Social Work Help Line at 614-645-6807 or email health@columbus.gov.

If you need a referral, fill out this NSW Referral Form.

This link contains local health resource lists. 

One Block At A Time (OBAT) is a micro-community intervention on one block in the Linden area where staff work alongside block residents over the course of one year to improve the health and wellness of the block. OBAT, which approaches health from a holistic perspective and focuses on developing social cohesion and leadership on the block, is based on the trauma-informed community development model created by the Neighborhood Resilience Project in Pittsburgh.

ReRoute provides wrap around services for at risk adolescents ages 13-21. Trauma-focused services will be provided to support healing and resiliency for youth and families in the community-based setting through intensive outreach and support.

Make a referral to the ReRoute program.

For questions regarding ReRoute referrals, contact ReRoute at 614-645-8322.

The Columbus CARE Coalition is a collaborative effort to address community trauma and uplift resiliency. With more than 500 community partners and five working groups, the CARE Coalition provides support to communities after trauma and free trauma-responsive care trainings.

To request support following community trauma, call 614-645-6248.

Request a free trauma-responsive care training.

Learn more about the Columbus CARE Coalition. 

The Linden Anti-Violence Team provides outreach, intervention and wrap-around services to those at risk for violence in the Linden area. The Linden Anti-Violence Team offers healing circles, conflict resolution trainings, and beautification projects in the community.

To make a referral or request attendance at an outreach event, call 614-724-5603.

The Right Response Unit embeds social workers in the 911 call center to address callers with mental health needs. Social workers help problem solve, connect callers to community resources and ongoing mental health services, and provide emotional support to callers while working closely with dispatchers. In 2021, 60% of calls taken by the Right Response Unit did not require a police response and were resolved by working with the social work team.

The Violent Crime Review Group reviews violent crimes and convenes City of Columbus partners to coordinate a response of City services after violent crimes. The group also communicates and collaborates on neighborhood needs following violent crimes, including environmental, enforcement and emotional support.

The VOICE (Violence Outreach, Intervention, Community Engagement) program assists victims of violent crime who have been referred by Ohio Health Medical Centers to Columbus Public Health and the Columbus Recreation and Parks APPS program. The VOICE social work/intervention teams provide wrap-around services and connects participants to needed medical, clinical and community social service programs to assist in their overall recovery.

For more information, please contact Roger Carter at racarter@columbus.gov.