By Judy Clabes
NKyTribune editor
The Family Nurturing Center, a non-profit, aims to end the cycle of children abuse by addressing individual well-being and healthy family relationships. Its long-standing services includes a wide-ranging and vitally important menu — from counseling to parent education to education and training for children and adults to parenting time supervision to holistic and wellness programs.
Its services are expanding into new, and roomier quarters to be located in Crestview Hills, though it has service sites across NKY and into Cincinnati.
Demand for services is great and continues to increase. The need for counseling services has increase beyond capacity to provide them, as the organization is facing a terrific backup in demand. As loving professionals with a cadre of caring volunteers, the organization doesn’t want to turn anyone away — so they are determined to find a way.
Consider this story, as shared by a Family Nurturing Center staffer:
Recently, a couple opened their home to a four-year-old girl as first-time foster parents. They had already known her as part of the extended family, but stepping into the role of parents overnight was overwhelming. They loved her deeply, yet they struggled to understand the intense behaviors she displayed.
Like many new caregivers in this situation, they feared something might be seriously wrong. They came to the Family Nurturing Center worried and exhausted, already preparing for a psychiatric evaluation because they didn’t know what else to do.
What they needed most wasn’t a diagnosis. They needed understanding.
Our team gently helped them see their child through a trauma-informed lens, helping them understand that behavior is often a child’s way of communicating pain, fear, or confusion when they don’t yet have the words.
Over the months that followed, we walked beside them. We taught connection-based parenting strategies, ways to help their child regulate overwhelming emotions, and how to create a home that is safe, predictable, and trusting.
Slowly, things began to change.
The parents later described the experience as “game-changing.” The behaviors that once felt so alarming began to soften. Their relationship with their daughter grew stronger. Even extended family members started using the same approaches they were learning.
And perhaps most importantly, as they saw their child begin to heal, the parents made a powerful decision: they postponed the psychiatric evaluation.
As they told us, they realized something that changed everything.
There wasn’t something wrong with their child. There was something that had happened to her.
That shift in understanding may alter the course of her life.
This is what trauma-informed care looks like. It doesn’t dismiss clinical needs when they truly exist. Instead, it ensures that children are first seen, understood, and supported before they are labeled, and that caregivers are given the tools they need to help a child heal.
Because when families are supported, children don’t just survive trauma. They begin to grow beyond it.
Funding makes moments like this possible every day. And funding will make it possible for Family Nurturing Center to embrace the 80-plus others on their waiting list who have reached out for help so that a brighter future is created for these children and families — and the whole community. Help keep children safe and make our community a more nurturing place.
Donate here. Check out the agency’s Wish List here. Support the 5th annual Prom for a Purpose on May 15 at the Turfway Park Racing & Gaming.
Report child abuse or neglect at this website or by calling 859-292-6550 (weekdays), 1-877-KY SAFE1 (nights and weekends) or Parent Help Line at 1-800-CHILDREN.
Join in Lighting Up Blue in April, Prevent Child Abuse Month. A growing list of organizations are joining in and you can register on the Family Nurturing Center website.