A long career in public service comes to a close this week, with Debbie Leavell’s retirement from the Christian County Jail, where she has served as coordinator of the Women’s Community Service Work Program for the past 13 years.
The program is known to many as “Debbie’s Darlings”, as it was christened by County Judge-Executive Steve Tribble shortly after its inception. The jail had a men’s program for many years and decided to expand the opportunity for the community service work release to female inmates as well. Leavell was there from the beginning.
The south Christian native says the work began with county offices but quickly expanded to include a variety of local nonprofit agencies as the popularity of the program grew and word spread. The scope of the work expanded too.
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Leavell says that in addition to helping the various agencies, she has enjoyed the opportunity to help the women themselves — giving them a chance to be exposed to programs and opportunities they may not otherwise have known and providing support and encouragement.
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When asked about the dollar value of the work performed by her teams over the years, Leavell said she wasn’t sure, but she does know it allowed many different organizations to stretch their budgets in other areas and accomplish even more.
Leavell worked in banking and in the County Clerk’s office prior to joining the Christian County Jail staff 13 years ago. As for retirement, she says, she has to step away for at least 90 days from all the various agencies that have been so much a part of her life for the past 13 years, but it’s really just retirement from county employment. She’s already gotten what she calls an attractive, exciting offer that she’s not ready to discuss publicly just yet, but promises she won’t be idle for long. Leavell’s last day of work with the jail is Friday.
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