A building cannot heal a child.
But what happens inside one can change the course of a child’s life.
Later this year, Family Nurturing Center will open a new home in Crestview Hills. At approximately 18,000 square feet, it will give us more than twice the space of our current rented Northern Kentucky facility. We need that space. Right now, more than 80 children are waiting for specialized trauma counseling. Some may wait six to nine months.
Imagine hearing that when it is your child who needs help. The wait is painful for families, and it points to a challenge we must address together: we need more room to serve children and the people and resources to provide the care they deserve.
In 2024, more than 14,000 Kentucky children were identified as victims of abuse or neglect. Kentucky’s rate was nearly twice the national average. These children live in our neighborhoods and attend our schools. What happens to them next will help shape the future of our region.
Childhood trauma does not simply disappear when the immediate danger has passed. It can affect learning, health and the ability to build trusting relationships. Its effects can follow a child into adulthood. Yet with effective care and steady support, children can heal and families can change course.
For nearly five decades, Family Nurturing Center has provided that kind of help across Northern Kentucky and Greater Cincinnati. Childhood trauma is a specialty here. Our highly trained therapists use evidence-based treatments designed for children and families.
Some approaches help children work through frightening experiences; others help parents and children rebuild trust. Compassion is essential. So is knowing what kind of treatment a family needs and how to provide it well.
We work to prevent harm, too. We teach children how to recognize unsafe situations and seek help. We teach adults to spot signs of abuse and strengthen the protective factors that keep children safe. We help parents build healthier relationships and provide supervised Parenting Time when families need a safe setting to reconnect. Last year, more than 11,000 children and adults received FNC services.
All of our services are free.
Our new center will bring those parts of our work together. It will have additional counseling rooms and welcoming spaces for parenting time visitation, along with sensory and calming rooms, a therapeutic playground and a family kitchen. We will have room for parent education, prevention training, holistic and wellness services, and gatherings with the teachers, health care providers, child welfare professionals and other partners who work with families. It will serve people seeking help and strengthen the network of people trying to help them.
We have designed the space with the brain’s response to trauma in mind. For a child whose nervous system is on alert, an unfamiliar sound, a crowded hallway or a lack of privacy may signal danger. Clear, predictable spaces and a quiet place to regain a sense of calm can offer signals of safety. Those details do not heal a child on their own. They make it easier to connect with the skilled people who can.
Our $12 million Nurturing Hope campaign supports both the new home and the work that will happen inside it. It funds additional staff, expanded services, training, technology and infrastructure so we can reach more families. Opening the doors will be an exciting milestone.
What matters most is what we can provide for children and families once they are open.
The community has already committed $9.7 million. The Commonwealth of Kentucky invested $2.5 million, championed by Representative Stephanie Dietz with support from Senators Chris McDaniel and Amanda Mays Bledsoe. Kenton County Fiscal Court committed $500,000 early in the project and recently added another $500,000. Those commitments show that helping children recover and keeping families strong are public priorities.
Foundations, businesses and individuals have stepped forward, too. The R.C. Durr Foundation, Drees Homes Foundation, Yung Family Foundation, Millstone Fund, St. Elizabeth Healthcare, Central Bank and Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile, Jr. Foundation are among the many who have invested in this center. Local businesses and individual donors are part of it as well. This project is becoming a reality because people across our community have chosen to support children
and families.
We have $2.3 million left to raise. I am asking you to help us finish Nurturing Hope and put the full promise of this center to work. There are ways to give at every level, including naming opportunities. Visit familynurture.org to learn more or make a gift.
You may never know which child in your neighborhood has experienced abuse. But you can help create a community where adults know what to look for, parents can ask for support and children can get expert care when they need it. We all have a role in ending the cycle of child abuse.
Families will not measure this project in square feet. They will measure it in whether help is available, whether someone understands what their child has experienced and whether they have a way forward. That is how we move toward safe children, thriving families and nurturing communities.
Let’s finish what our community has started. What happens next matters.
Jane Herms is President and CEO of Family Nurturing Center. She has spent more than 30 years with the organization, working to prevent child abuse, strengthen families and help children heal. To learn more about the work of Family Nurturing Center or the Nurturing Hope Campaign please reach out 859-538-1612.