(Columbus) – It’s an innovative program many communities around Ohio will be watching.

Franklin County Children Services is launching a campaign to encourage single parents to carefully consider the potential effect on their children when choosing a partner.

Children Services is hoping to spread awareness about child abuse by partners, a problem that has claimed the lives of eight Columbus area children since 2007.

Community outreach director Deborah Armstrong encourages that single parents not introduce their children to every dating partner they may have. Only have partners meet children once a commitment to the relationship is evident.

Men choose poorly, too. Armstrong says two of the eight children's deaths have occurred at the hands of a father's abusive partner.

Armstrong believes in this tough economy, single parents are more likely to leave children with people they might not have complete confidence in to save money.

There is no such program in the Cleveland area. According to the Cuyahoga County Department of Children and Family Services, there are more than 14,000 investigated reports of child abuse and neglect each year; nearly 3,000 children are in the custody of Children and Family Services due to parental abuse or neglect, and on average, 104 children are taken into custody each month.

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