It is often said that a team is successful only when all of its members fully understand and buy into a united strategy. The coach designs the plays and the players execute the game plan.

Eddie Philabaun and his staff at STAR Community Justice Center are firmly dedicated to the success of their team and the communities they serve.

And the state of Ohio has noticed.

The employees of the Franklin Furnace facility, led by Philabaun, recently received recognition from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections due to a desire to achieve high fidelity for the enhancement of their communities.

On Oct. 13, the organization was named the recipient of the Clifford Skeen Award, an honor bestowed annually to the leading community based correctional facility in Ohio.

According to Ohio Bureau of Community Sanctions Chief Alicia Handwerk, two specific areas made STAR stand out among its peers: seamlessly implementing evidence-based practices into its programming and ensuring that all staff members understood and performed their specific job duties based upon empirical research findings.

That implementation process, which began in early 2010, required a major shift in treatment modalities. Nearly a decade of operating as a therapeutic community was abandoned to embrace the cognitive-behavioral approach preferred by research studies.

“They have turned their program around in a relatively short time,” Handwerk said, making specific mention of the effort necessary to facilitate such a drastic shift. “It’s very impressive that they would be so far along in so many areas in such a short time.”

Steve Russell, a community corrections specialist in Handwerk’s office, noted that three CBCF facilities are nominated annually for the Clifford Skeen Award, which began in 1993. Each nominee is then given the opportunity to give a presentation displaying their value to the criminal justice system and their communities, as well as to demonstrate their usage of evidence-based practices.

“Their knowledge of evidence-based practices and research really impressed the judges,” Handwerk said, adding that the BCS is striving to bring the entire criminal justice community around to this way of thinking.

Lawrence County Assistant Prosecutor Brigham Anderson participated in the STAR presentation to provide insight to the BCS judges regarding the facility’s value to his community.

He pointed out that the STAR staff works well with prosecutors and judges to accommodate substance abuse offenders, teaching them to alter flawed thinking patterns, and, via the facility’s reentry department, assist them in integrating themselves back into society.

“STAR has a good success rate at taking offenders and helping to turn their lives around,” Anderson said. “In Lawrence County, they do an excellent job at both providing punishment for criminal acts and providing rehabilitation to offenders, which decreases the likelihood that they will engage in future criminal acts.”

Philabaun deflected all praise for the award to his staff, while gently noting that accolades are not the reason STAR is in business.

“It really means something to me that our staff was recognized for the great jobs they all do,” he said. “Simply being considered for this award showed me that other people are noticing the effort and dedication these people put into helping others.”

“The accolades are great, but we don’t work in this field to win awards,” he added. “We do this because we care about human lives.”