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PRESENTATION – Michele Santin, left, director of the Jefferson County Department of Job and Family Services, was presented the Helen Carrocci Child Advocate Award for 2022 by Amy Lingerfelt, director of A Caring Place Child Advocacy Center.
— Janice Kiaski

STEUBENVILLE – Michele Santin of Toronto always wanted to be a social worker.

“God has always planted a seed in me to care for children,” explained the director of the Jefferson County Department of Job and Family Services in the moments before being presented the Helen Carrocci Child Advocate Award for 2022, a validation of her career choice.

The honor came July 12 in her workplace and was presented by Amy Lingerfelt, director of A Caring Place Child Advocacy Center in Wintersville. Established in 2002, A Caring Place provides a safe, comfortable, private, child-friendly environment for child abuse victims and their families with a goal of minimizing the trauma of child abuse while providing an effective means to gather necessary information for successful prosecution of offenders.

The award has been given annually since 2011 in memory of Carrocci, who was a longtime advocate for children, a co-founder of A Caring Place and its first board president.

It is given to a local individual or organization that has exemplified excellence in serving children in the community or has helped with the development and success of A Caring Place or the Jefferson County Multi-Disciplinary Team.

That the award is in honor of Carrocci made it all the more meaningful to Santin, who said she knew and worked with Carrocci.

“She was a member of the Children’s Services Board when I was a caseworker and a supervisor and then she also was the board president and, overwhelmingly, she was very, very supportive of us as workers. She was very kind, very caring toward us, but most importantly, what I remember about Helen is her compassion and her tenacity working on behalf of children,” Santin said during the informal awards ceremony that included kind words and expressions of appreciation, cake and an audience of peers, co-workers and other officials.

Among them were Jefferson County Commissioner Tony Morelli; Joel Potts, executive director of the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services Directors Association; and Matt Kendall, JCDJFS assistant director and human resources administrator.

Also there was Russ Curry, who nominated Santin for the award. Curry, whose social work career spanned more than 50 years, served as interim director of A Caring Place before Lingerfelt’s appointment and was instrumental in its establishment more than 20 years ago. At one point he was director of social services, then executive director of the Jefferson County Children Services Board, what today is known as the Jefferson County Department of Job and Family Services, Children Services Division, before going on to oversee Family Services Association and then working with Coleman Health Services.

Curry said Santin has dedicated her entire life to serving Jefferson County children and described her as “a humble servant,” someone who embodies the mission of A Caring Place by her dedication to children and families through the years.

“I remember meeting Michele for the first time when I came down here to work in 1991, and she already was an adoption worker at Children’s Services and had a history of working as an adoption worker for the Diocese of Steubenville,” Curry said, noting he had watched her progress through getting her master’s degree.

“One of the things that I see, as far as the characteristics of Michele, is she’s a humble servant. And I mean, in the sense that she is willing to do whatever needs to get done. She’s not interested in getting the spotlight, but she sees a problem, and she begins to take on that problem,” Curry said.

In his nomination letter, Curry noted that Santin coordinates an annual conference on Promoting Healthy Attachments, an outreach that has provided development and success within the Jefferson County Multi-Disciplinary Team and A Caring Place staff as well as for professionals from a four-state area. The training helps foster parents, adoptive parents and professionals.

“It was her determination to do what was needed to be done for children because of her experience as an adoption worker, both in the diocese and children’s services, and so she saw what was a problem. She didn’t go out and say, ‘Let’s make a big deal out of this,’ she said, ‘Let’s do something that’s going to help people,’” Curry said.

“I am honored and humbled to receive the award, especially since it’s in memory of Helen Carrocci,” said Santin, who grew up in Steubenville, graduating from Catholic Central High School, Class of 1975, earning her bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Ohio Dominican University in Columbus and her master’s degree in counseling from Franciscan University of Steubenville.

She began her career as a social worker at Catholic Charities, Diocese of Steubenville, in 1981, providing casework services to adoptive families.

“Michele started at the Jefferson County Children Services Board in 1989 as a social worker, and years later was promoted to supervisor over the placement unit,” Curry wrote in his nomination letter. “In February of 2007, she left Children Services and went back to the Catholic Diocese in Steubenville and remained there until January of 2020, when she returned to Children Services as program administrator and then was made interim director in 2020.” Santin was promoted to her current role as director in August 2020. She has served on the Diocese of Steubenville Child Protection Board since 2020.

Santin explained her passion for her work.

“God has always planted a seed in me to care for children. I’ve always wanted to be a social worker. I actually wanted to be in the Peace Corps when I was in grade school. It’s always been in my heart. God always planted that seed in my heart from grade school to be a social worker,” she said.

“God has blessed me tremendously, more than I could have ever imagined. I was happy being a caseworker. I never had any aspirations, beyond being a caseworker, which was great, and then I always say you have to have somebody who believes in you more than you believe in yourself, and for me, that was Russ,” she said, adding that Curry was always “very encouraging, very inspiring.”

Mentors, colleagues, administrators, supervisors and front-line workers have been blessings throughout her career, according to Santin, who said she was “very happy” to receive recognition “for something that I love to do and I’ve always wanted to do.”

“I can overwhelmingly say that the best part of the job for me has always been working with the children and families,” Santin said, noting how the field of neuroscience has changed dramatically in the past 40 years to help families and children heal — “the best part of the job.”

Prior to presenting the award, Lingerfelt offered a flavor for who Carrocci was.

“Helen began her advocacy career as a Girl Scout leader in 1957. She worked as a sheriff’s juvenile officer investigating child abuse cases among other duties. She served as the facilitator of the Jefferson County multidisciplinary team for child sexual abuse. She was on the board of directors for Jefferson County Children’s Services, and she was a driving force in establishing A Caring Place Child Advocacy Center,” Lingerfelt said, noting Carrocci was the center’s first president.

Lingerfelt explained that nominations for the award are accepted from individuals around the county, “specifically the Jefferson County multidisciplinary team, board members of A Caring Place and anyone who works with children in the area.”

“Nominations are accepted for people who have exhibited an unending commitment or mission to the welfare of children in Jefferson County, and someone who’s just made a big contribution to improving the lives of children in Jefferson County,” Lingerfelt added.

“Michelle has done that through her entire career,” she said prior to presenting the award, which normally is presented when A Caring Place holds its annual fundraiser event in April, Child Abuse Prevention Month.

“But this year, with public health concerns, we decided to hold off for the third year in a row, and we’re just kind of just now getting around to actually presenting it to Michele,” Lingerfelt said of fundraisers not held because of COVID-19.

“To receive this award was very humbling and it really means a lot to me,” Santin said.

“God has blessed me tremendously from the beginning of my career at the Diocese of Steubenville and continues to do so at the Jefferson County Department of Job and Family Services.

“God has blessed me tremendously to be able to do this.”

(Kiaski can be contacted at jk*****@he**************.com.)