Elliott returns to Coshocton to raise family and help others
Tarez Elliott is pictured with her children Liam and Tristan. She and her husband Chad and their boys live in West Lafayette. Contributed | Beacon
COSHOCTON – Tarez Elliott spent several years working in Columbus, but when it came time to raise a family she felt drawn back home to Coshocton County.
Elliott graduated from Ridgewood High School in 1999 and furthered her education at The Ohio State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology.
“I wanted to be a therapist,” she said. “I saw myself having an office with a couch and people coming in and telling me their problems. I realized though that to make money in social work you needed a master’s degree or even a doctorate so I switched gears a little when I graduated.”
Elliott ended up finding a job as a disability claims examiner in Columbus for the State of Ohio Division of Disability Determination.
“They say when you get a state job if you’ve been there five years you don’t leave because of the money you are making by then and the vacation and sick time you’ve built up,” she said. “By the time I’d been there 10 years I’d had enough and realized it wasn’t for me. I didn’t know where else I would go though that I’d have the same leave time and be making that same money.”
Around this time her oldest son Liam was born and she and her husband Chad decided they wanted to raise their family back home.
“My husband is from Newcomerstown and he had family back here,” Tarez said. “I didn’t have a lot of family, but I had tons of friends here that are big support for me.”
Chad found a job working in Guernsey County and Tarez was able to obtain a position at the Ohio Industrial Commission in Cambridge, where she worked as a claims examiner, but she wanted to work more closely with people.
Tarez found her calling at the prosecutor’s office in Coshocton when the victim/witness coordinator position opened up.
“Before this I had no association with the criminal justice system and had never even been in a sheriff’s office,” she said. “My husband though had been a victim advocate in Cambridge and taught me about what I could expect and I started thinking I could do this. Knowing that I would be involved with people too and not be in a cubical all day were huge pluses.”
On May 12 Tarez celebrated her one year anniversary at the prosecutor’s office. Some of her responsibilities there include: Making sure victims are informed of and understand their rights; providing notice to them of all public court proceedings involving the case; being their support person at any hearing they may attend and helping them understand the process and outcome; being a liaison between victims and the prosecutor; assisting them with paperwork or applications victims of crime may have to fill out; and assisting them with any referrals to other agencies in Coshocton County.
“Honestly I feel like I was meant to help people in some way and I’m doing that with this job,” Tarez said.
She and her husband Chad live in West Lafayette with Liam, who is now 5 and his 2-year-old brother Tristan.
Tarez loved what Columbus had to offer, but is glad life brought her back home.
“I at one time was one of the naysayers (about Coshocton) during a certain point in my life,” she said. “It was in my early to mid-twenties when I guess you could say I was ‘enjoying life’ with little to no responsibilities. I was getting to experience a lot of what Columbus had to offer, traveling, and making money I felt like I didn’t have the potential of making back home. I loved Columbus, still do, and I remember thinking during those years there is no way I could move back to Coshocton. It wasn’t until I settled down in my early 30s, got married, and became a mother that things changed.”
Tarez and Chad actually made a pros and cons list when they first considered leaving Columbus and discovered that the pros had much more value than the cons.
“While the cons list was in fact longer, the items on the pros list carried more weight (family, friends, support system, safe place to live, etc) vs. the mostly ‘materialistic’ items on the cons lists,” Tarez said. “For me, it’s the non-material things that matter most to me. I actually don’t want my kids raised in an area where everything, I mean everything, is at their fingertips. I truly appreciate and value this small town of ours, and the friendships I made and continue to have with the people I grew up with. I’m almost certain my boys will feel the same.”
Editor’s note: The Beacon is working with the Coshocton County Chamber of Commerce to highlight young professionals in the community.
Category: People & Places
