TOPS Cares

TOPS Cares

SPONSORED BY

Pam Darnall, CEO/President Family & Children’s Place Family & Children’s Place

Serving over 4000 children and families each year, Family & Children’s Place has operated in the Louisville area since 1883. Founded as the Charity Organization Society, the agency eventually got its name from the merger of Family Place and Family & Children First in 2008. CEO/President Pam Darnall has served the non-profit for over 27 years and assumed her current role in late 2013. Governor Beshear held a ceremonial bill signing on campus recently following Family & Children’s Place's significant legislative advocacy. “Family & Children’s Place serves family needs and prevents child abuse. We also stop abuse when it happens and provide healing and recovery. Our five services help parents to recognize their strengths as they manage the challenges of parenting, raising healthy babies and children.” HANDS supports expecting and new parents to navigate the challenges of parenthood by offering community resources, parenting activities, and information through home visits, assessments, and ongoing services. Greater Louisville Head Start helps pregnant mothers and children up to age five prepare for school success. Parents and collaborative community partners are critical to the success of these programs. School-based services provide programming at Engelhard Elementary and Meyzeek Middle School in Louisville and Hazelwood Middle School in New Albany, Indiana. The Kosair Charities Child Advocacy Center (CAC) is the third-largest in Kentucky, and helps children and youth impacted by child sexual abuse and human trafficking. A nationally-recognized model, the CAC and staff “are colocated with LMPD’s Crimes Against Children Unit, child protective services, prosecutors, medical experts, and mental health clinicians.”

Family & Children’s Place counseling services are “bestin-class,” licensed and certified to help heal the effects of child abuse, family violence, and trauma. Specialized individual, family, group, and school-based counseling and interventions are available at no cost to victims and families.

But Family & Children’s Place is unable to serve all children and families who are referred due to current workforce capacity challenges resulting from a lack of funding for services. Some funding has been significantly reduced and some eliminated altogether. Medicaid reimbursements and other federal funding have not kept pace with actual costs for decades, resulting in an inability to recruit and retain staff.

To volunteer, explore board membership, or make a donation, visit familyandchildrensplace.org. Follow @famchildplace on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

by Dawn Anderson | courtesy photos