WOOD COUNTY, Ohio — On Election Day, one of the issues passed was a renewal levy to benefit the Wood County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services.
"It really just invigorates our mission. I think we're moving to a society that really is acknowledging when they need help and we're so thrilled to be able to offer them services when they're ready to have them," Kaylee Smith, manager of marketing and communications with Wood County ADAMHS said.
Costing property owners only $33 a year, the levy is estimated to collect more than $5 million for the next 10 years. It will help to support the behavioral health services in the area, as well as the expansion of the children resource center and building a urgent care for kids.
"We recognize that creating resilience and helping the kiddos really helps them transition into healthy adults," Smith said.
While the levy stays the same for the next few years, Smith of the ADAMHS said it is looking to help expand its support for local kids who need help.
"I think that we are recognizing that the kiddos in our county are just needing a little bit of extra help, especially in the post-pandemic world that we live in," Smith said. "We are recognizing the signs even after the pandemic of kind of what isolation did to them."
Giving kids in Wood County a safe space is the goal for the group. And they can't help but feel grateful for the support they have gotten from the community.
"We recognize that we do fantastic work," Smith said. "Our providers are boots on the ground doing the best work that they can and we get to fund them and hold them to high school standards, but nothing that we do is possible without our fantastic taxpayers."