In December 2000, the Mahoning County Commissioners appointed the Family and Children First Council to serve as the child abuse and child neglect advisory board. The responsibilities of this board include planning, issuing public notice, reviewing applications for funding, submitting allocation plans, and establishing procedures for programs and evaluation of Ohio Children's Trust Funds.

Mahoning County Family and Children First Council (MCFCFC) received notice from the Ohio Children's Trust Fund in February 2005 that the total SFY 2006 and SFY 2007 allocation for Mahoning County is $73,282. MCFCFC issued a public notice of the availability of application for these funds and thirteen organizations submitted a proposal.

Proposals were pre-screened by the MCFCFC Planning Committee and then forwarded to a review committee the week of March 14, 2005. The review committee made the recommendation to fund six of the proposals. The MCFCFC Executive Committee approved that recommendation on March 18, 2005. The organizations funded to provide services are Austintown Schools (Artworks), Beatitude House (Child Advocate Program), Burdman Group (Sojourner House Domestic Violence Program), D & E Counseling (Upstream), Mahoning County Juvenile Court (Parent Project), and Neil Kennedy Recovery Clinic (Strengthening Mahoning County Families).
The organizations listed above are funded for two years (July 2005 - June 2006 and July 2006-June 2007).