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Policy&Practice
August 2017
40
our
do’ers
pro le
Name:
Cheryl Boley
Title:
Director, Perry County (OH)
Job and Family Services Agency
Years of Service:
years—
seven years in my current position
Rewards of the Job:
The bet-
terment of families and communities
through public service has been the
focus of my career. I have dedicated
more than years to identifying and
removing barriers that prevent families
and communities from securing the
basic necessities that are required to
build their futures. The experience
I secured while in Franklin County
(OH) cultivated the proficiencies I
would later employ as Director of Perry
County Job and Family Services and as
the County Lead for development and
implementation of Ohio’s statewide
County Shared Services Project (CSS).
I began as an entry-level eligibility
worker at Franklin County Job and
Family Services, which is now Ohio’s
largest metro area. It was there that
I developed my passion and drive to
e ect change, which led me to move
into management at that agency and
where I eventually became an Assistant
Director and remained for years. It
was in Franklin County that the foun-
dation of my future was established.
In
, I was appointed by the Perry
County (OH) Commissioners as
Director of the Perry County Job and
Family Services Agency. The appoint-
ment allowed me to serve the needs
of my own rural community. Perry
County is one of Ohio’s
Appalachia
counties where approximately two
out of five residents receive food
assistance or some other form of assis-
tance. Recognizing some of the same
challenges that metropolitan areas
encounter and identifying unique
obstacles that rural communities face,
I immediately went to work seeking
ways to have a positive and continuing
impact on our community.
Accomplishments Most
Proud Of:
The accomplishments I
treasure the most are those that have
had an immediate impact and a sus-
tainable legacy. I am, perhaps, most
proud of the voluntary statewide coali-
tion we built to utilize technologies and
business processes to deliver a common
client experience.
As any director can attest, they work
hard for their communities and their
sta , and their time is at a premium.
The need never ceases, and while sat-
isfying, the work is endless. They serve
on numerous boards, provide commu-
nity outreach, support commissioners,
and always seek to improve lives. It is
this mindset and sense of duty that pro-
pelled me to accept the request to work
on the statewide Ohio Benefits Project
as Lead for CSS.
Having worked within my own Canton
District on our vision of CSS, being
involved in the background planning
for C and on numerous projects in
Franklin County, I felt my experience
made me uniquely qualified to lead this
project. I worked with the CSS team
to identify and vet advanced technolo-
gies, including audio signature, call
center platform, virtual hold, and
dashboard data reporting. These tech-
nologies were then incorporated with
the county-driven CSS, progressive
business processes, and have now been
implemented across multiple counties.
I worked closely with my team to
educate county Job and Family
Services (JFS) Directors throughout
Ohio about the CSS initiative. The CSS
participation was voluntary, and CSS
Directors created their own shared
services groups (hubs) consisting of
– counties. The initial intent was for
counties to go live with all programs
in the new Ohio Benefits System.
Unfortunately, that stalled when the
SNAP/Cash conversion was delayed.
Not wanting to endure a long delay, I
o ered an alternative path with the
Medicaid Pull Ahead (MPA) plan.
The MPA allowed CSS work to move
forward and gave counties the ability
to reclaim their work for Medicaid
renewals from Automated Health
Systems and their work for Medicaid
applications from the C group. This
allowed counties to move forward and
continue with their collaborations.
To date, of Ohio’s
counties are
committed to CSS. This includes six
county-created hubs and six stand-
alone metro agencies. Two metro
agencies and four hubs totaling
counties have gone live and are now
processing their own Medicaid intakes
and renewals. The CSS project team
has successfully met all of its deadlines
and commitments. The result will be
that the majority of Ohio’s JFS clients
will be served by a hub, through the
Enterprise Call Center, and will have
a common client experience. We are
delivering services more e ciently and
In Our Do’ers Profile, we highlight some of the hardworking and talented
individuals in public human services. This issue features
Cheryl Boley
, Director
of the Perry County (OH) Job and Family Services Agency
See Profile on page