01/20/2026

Augla­ize DD elects new officers and dis­cusses the stra­tegic plan for 2026

META HOGE

The Augla­ize County Board of Devel­op­mental Dis­ab­il­it­ies elec­ted officers and dis­cussed its stra­tegic plan at its monthly board meet­ing earlier this week. Kristine Stine­baugh, Kristi Klop­fen­stein and Judi Mar­tin were elec­ted as board pres­id­ent, vice pres­id­ent and sec­ret­ary, respect­ively, for 2026.

After elect­ing officers, the board dis­cussed its stra­tegic plan, which is for 2025 through 2027. Accord­ing to the plan avail­able on the Augla­ize DD web­site, its object­ives are to ensure fiscal sus­tain­ab­il­ity, enhance com­munity out­reach, accom­mod­ate increas­ing needs and foster employee engage­ment.

High­lights were pub­lished in Decem­ber 2025 for the fourth quarter of 2025. One high­light for ensur­ing fiscal sus­tain­ab­il­ity was that Early Inter­ven­tion staff par­ti­cip­ated in a train­ing focused on assist­ive tech­no­logy acquis­i­tion and usage from the Ohio Depart­ment of Chil­dren and Youth. Another high­light was that cost state­ment reports in indi­vidual ser­vice plans were imple­men­ted. Augla­ize DD also met with the county budget com­mis­sion and com­mis­sion­ers to dis­cuss waiver match growth, the increas­ing num­ber of youth being served and the poten­tial impact of prop­erty tax elim­in­a­tion.

For the enhan­cing com­munity out­reach object­ive, Augla­ize DD cre­ated a “This is Aut­ism” card for fam­il­ies to use to pro­mote inclu­sion and under­stand­ing. Early Inter­ven­tion staff par­ti­cip­ated in mul­tiple com­munity out­reach events, includ­ing the Help Me Grow Fam­ily Resource Fair and “It’s My Turn” ban­quet at St. Marys Memorial High School. Blue Envelope pack­ets were dropped off to area law enforce­ment agen­cies, the Augla­ize County BMV and Cap­ab­il­it­ies. Blue Envel­opes help drivers with aut­ism communicate with law enforce­ment dur­ing traffic stops or acci­dents.

One high­light for accom­mod­at­ing increas­ing needs was that changes were imple­men­ted to effi­ciently serve three to five-yearolds. Another high­light was the expan­sion of the Child­hood and Trans­ition Ser­vices team and improve­ment of work­load man­age­ment through a change to the Table of Organ­iz­a­tion. Sup­port staff duties were updated and cla­ri­fied to enhance cus­tomer exper­i­ence and ensure an organ­iz­a­tion-wide under­stand­ing of respons­ib­il­it­ies and roles.

For the fos­ter­ing employee engage­ment object­ive, rep­res­ent­at­ives from Cin­cin­nati Chil­dren’s Hos­pital and Augla­ize County Crippled Chil­dren and Adults presen­ted dur­ing the Octo­ber staff meet­ing as part of a “Learn­ing Together” series. Another high­light was a con­tract with “The Impact Group” to con­tinue effect­ive com­mu­nic­a­tion tech­niques for employee assess­ment. Augla­ize DD also imple­men­ted team-build­ing activ­it­ies into weekly meet­ings.

The board also dis­cussed num­bers for enroll­ment and ser­vices as of Decem­ber 2025. There were 163 adults, who are ages 22 and up, enrolled and receiv­ing ser­vices. There was a total of 249 chil­dren aged zero to 21. In the birth to age three cat­egory, there were 86. For ages three to five, there were 50. In the ages six to 21 cat­egory, there were 113. There were 104 ser­vices provided to chil­dren ages zero to three, 30 ser­vices to chil­dren ages three to 21 and 158 ser­vices to adults.

There are 178 indi­vidu­als on the path to employ­ment. 27% are cur­rently employed, while 16% are act­ively search­ing for employ­ment.

The remain­ing indi­vidu­als are receiv­ing group employ­ment sup­port, voca­tional train­ing or adult day ser­vices, or are stu­dents, retir­ees or oth­ers.

The next Augla­ize DD board meet­ing will be held on Monday, Feb. 9, at 6 p.m. at the County Board Admin­is­tra­tion Office at 20 E. First St. in New Bre­men.

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