Family Servicesa Hidden Gem

Afew years ago, I was asked by a fellow lawyer to be on the Board of Family Services. I have lived in Dayton for over 40 years, and been involved with several non-profit organizations, but had never even heard of Family Services. So I did, what I tend do in this electronic age, a google search to find out more about the agency. What I found out was that Family Services is a non-profit agency that works tirelessly to help those in need, in so many ways, but does so quietly and without much fanfare.

Family Services has provided services to southwest Ohio for over 127 years. On December 17, 1896, facing about 2,000 unemployed workers in the Dayton area, a town meeting was held in the Grand Opera House to address the community concern for these workers and their families. Out of this meeting, an organization was founded named Associated Charities of Dayton and known, after several renditions, as Family Services.

Over the years, Family Services has provided programs to meet the changing needs of the Miami Valley’s community and families. Many current organizations spun off from Family Services, including Jobs and Family Services, Children’s Services and United Way. Still, Family Services stays true to its mission to strengthen families and communities through counseling, education, community building and advocacy.

Annually, Family Services delivers services to over 6,000 unique individuals, couples and families who suffer from anxiety, fear, anger, depression, addiction, eating disorders and despair. Many clients are victims of crime and have been exposed to trauma and adverse childhood experiences. Through its counseling and education programs, Family Services provides confidential individual, couple, and family counseling.

Expressing their experience with Family Services therapy, clients have indicated that “my therapist has provide a path for me to discover healthy ways to coping and healing”; “I have worked with my therapist for over 2 years and she has provided me with insights into my struggles and a guide to help me work through what I am dealing with at any given moment in time” ; a couple indicated that “my husband and I always leave our sessions feeling restored, hopeful, and ready to continue our path together.”

In addition to individual counseling, Family Services conducts several group sessions to address systemic issues facing our community. It runs an eight-week psychoeducational program on anger management where, as a group, it tries to help participants identify triggers, explore methods of conflict resolution, and develop various means to control anger. For new, and not so new parents, Family Services conducts a six-to-eight-week Parenting group session to help parents learn and support new and exciting ways of helping their children grow and thrive. The “August Project” is a 21-week psychoeducational group program for adult perpetrators of domestic violence.

Under the Victim of Crimes Act (VOCA), Family Services has, for numerous years, provided direct confidential counseling services and information on victim’s rights, free of charge, to anyone who is a victim of a crime in the State of Ohio. In response to increased gun violence and more specifically the shooting in the Oregon District, Family Services was designated as a Trauma Recovery Center (TRC) and provides counseling services to those experiencing primary and secondary trauma. U-Turn 180, a program recently developed, is a prevention program targeting responses to trauma, and continued behavior, of individuals involved criminally with the Montgomery County Diversion program.

Womanline established in 1971, is probably more well known, and has provided professional counseling services to adults, youth and children specializing in sexual abuse trauma treatment and prevention for nearly 50 years. Womanline joined with Family Services in 2016 and continues to specialize in domestic violence survivors, holistic trauma treatment, childhood trauma, and eating disorders. Womanline also supports two school-based educational programs, “I Can Tell” and SCAN (Stop Child Abuse and Neglect), both programs providing child abuse education and prevention.

Probably Family Service’s flagship program is its Community Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. Family Services provides mental health counseling and case management for individuals who are hearing impaired. They work with individuals to promote and develop life skills that support individual health and wellness, increase self-sufficiency, and reduce the isolation of the individual from society. Family Services also provides direct interpreting services to the hearing-impaired through American Sign

Language (ASL), C-Print Captioning, and other interpreting methods for individual personal and professional appointments e.g., doctor visits, classrooms, court appointments.

Family Services also strongly advocates and promotes equal access for services for the hearing-impaired by providing general information, referrals, and in-service educational training to employers and those who serve the deaf. Recognizing that the hearing-impaired face many societal challenges, Family Services provides a school-based alcohol and other drug prevention education program for deaf students, their schools, and communities. Also recognizing that children of parents who are hearing impaired also face numerous challenges, Family Services runs a summer camp program (KODA) for children of deaf parents so that they can meet other children with similar issues and enjoy a little respite from the stress of having a deaf parent. Family Services also provides American Sign Language Classes for those who may have family and friends who are Hearing-impaired.

Beginning with the need of 2,000 unemployed workers in 1897, through the cholera outbreak, the flood of 1913, the great depression, and so many ups and downs our community has faced, Family Services has continuously provided counseling and programs to the ever-evolving needs of the disadvantaged of the Dayton area communities. Now, hopefully you are aware of Family Services and some of the services they provide, and how Family Services is the Miami Valley’s, somewhat hidden Shinning Gem