“A beacon of light and a solid rock who helped thousands of victims of crime.” Lima, Ohio mayor, Sharetta Smith, read this proclamation during a ceremony posthumously honoring Phyllis Neff at the city’s Crime Victims Services building, where she had spent her 32-year career.
When Phyllis began working, victims of crime had few resources to guide them through the criminal justice and judicial systems. She dedicated herself to giving a greater voice to this underserved segment of the community. To ensure that the woman who remembered and cared for so many will never be forgotten, the garden outside the Crime Victims Services Building was re-dedicated as the Phyllis Neff Homicide Victim Memorial Garden in her honor.
As another way to pay tribute to Phyllis, her daughters, Rachel and Sarah Neff, have now created a scholarship for students attending The Ohio State University at Lima. This support will empower another generation to carry on Phyllis’ legacy of compassion, integrity and innovation in the field of social work.
Rachel recognizes that supporting Ohio State Lima’s robust social work program aligns with her mother’s pride in the profession and love for the city of Lima — and she wants this scholarship to serve as another way to keep her memory alive.
“One of Mom's favorite words was ‘advocate,’” Rachel shares. “Being a victim advocate was a fairly new concept in the court system in the 1980s when she started working. Hopefully, recipients of the scholarship will find encouragement in Mom's legacy and memorial garden, and potentially find inspiration for their own vision of how to advocate for those in need.”
A veteran of the U.S. Army, when Rachel returned home after two deployments in Iraq, she was in need of mental health care. Her mother helped her navigate the correct channels to get support, though this was not her area of expertise. “It was her God-given gift to advocate for others no matter what the cause,” Rachel says.
This scholarship is the first for social work students at Ohio State Lima. Funds will be awarded to junior and senior social work majors who graduated from a high school in west central Ohio or completed social work field experience at an agency in west central Ohio.
“Over the last few years, our students have been inundated with financial challenges from job losses, transportation issues, inflation and more, making covering tuition costs increasingly difficult,” says Carmen Cupples, BSSW program and field placement coordinator for Ohio State Lima. “This scholarship will alleviate one of their biggest areas of stress and allow them to focus more on their coursework.”
Cupples also identifies that there is a workforce shortage crisis in social work. “This scholarship couldn’t have come at a better time to help our students finish their schooling, graduate, and go out into the world and use their knowledge and skills to help address the increasing needs of our community members.”
Join us for Day of Giving on May 3
The Phyllis Neff Social Work Scholarship, and scholarship funds across the university, can be supported on Ohio State’s Day of Giving. And because gifts qualify for matching support on this special day, your potential to inspire even more students, including future social workers, will be doubled.
Leading up to and on May 3, our caring community is wrapping our Buckeyes with support by raising critical funds and doubling dollars for scholarships. Consider being part of something BIG when alumni and friends of Ohio State from near and far join together to create pathways to an affordable, accessible education for all students.