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For over 170 years, Beech Acres Parenting Center has been supporting parents. Statement on Ohio House Bill 616 Beech Acres Parenting Center is opposed to Ohio House Bill 616 and any similar legislation in the United States that is not based in scientific understanding of child development.   Beech Acres supports creating psychologically safe school environments where children can be their authentic selves. We know that this improves their development and creates a welcoming, inclusive culture for all students. This is especially important for those in minority and marginalized groups who are at higher risk for attempting and dying by suicide.    What is House Bill 616?  HB 616 seeks to prohibit “promotion and teaching of divisive or inherently racist concepts in public schools” by drawing inspiration from and combining content of Ohio HB 327 and Florida HB 1557. Specifically targeted in the bill are topics of sexual orientation and gender identity and “divisive or inherently racist concepts.” This language is problematic in that there are no clearly defined parameters for these concepts.  These restrictions are not grounded in science as understood by childhood development experts. The best way to begin to break down stereotypes is to have frequent discussions as early as developmentally appropriate.   What is Developmentally Appropriate?  Accepted scientific consensus concerning what is developmentally appropriate for children is at odds philosophically with HB 616. By 6 months of age, infants can categorize others by race and by age 3 they are able to categorize their own gender. Racial bias can be developed between ages 3 and 5. By age 7, 73% of transgender women and 78% of transgender men experienced gender dysphoria. And age 10 is the average age of “first sexual attraction” for both heterosexuals and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Further, racism has been linked to negatively affecting both physical health and persistent mental health problems in children, teens, and adolescents.  What Can Parents Do? Beech Acres Parenting Center is a safe space where all families are welcome and supported. If your family values include teaching your children about the different experiences other kids & families may be experiencing here are some ideas you can try.   If your children represent groups included in the bill, we have several resources available on our website to help guide you in having these important conversations on race, gender and sexuality.   If your child hears about the bill and wants to discuss it, start by being honest and empathetic with them about the bill. Read the bill itself and explain it in an age-appropriate manner. This can be an at-home civics lesson about how a bill becomes law. Ask open-ended questions to explore what your child may have heard in the classroom and community.  Talk to your children about fairness and justice. Ask these reflective questions suitable for all families and actively listen to their answers:  Don’t avoid these conversations with your children just because they are uncomfortable. Have the confidence to have these important age-appropriate conversations. And keep talking to them about these issues. Recognizing and celebrating diverse cultures and recognizing that injustice and inequalities exist is the same conversation.  Finally, discuss how your family can be open, inclusive, and kind to everyone they encounter. Advocate for your child, their friends, and your community. Increasing acceptance and reducing bias creates a positive, welcoming environment for everyone.  Go Further With These Relevant Blog Posts Transgender, Non-Binary, and Gender Fluid Fast Facts for Parents  Coming Out: A Guide for Parents of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Gender Expansive (LGBTQ+) Youth  A Parent’s Guide to Having Critically Important Conversations About Diversity, Racism, and Equality with Your Children Part 1  A Parent’s Guide to Having Critically Important Conversations About Diversity, Racism, and Equality with Your Children Part 2  Additional Books, Media, and Other Resources:   PFLAG  The Trevor Project  Kaleidoscope Youth Center  Love The Skin You’re In  The World Needs More Purple People  Wonder  I Am Malala  The Hate U Give  Gender Unicorn  LGBTQ crisis hotlines 

The Spring 2022 edition of Insiders’ Scoop is here! An exciting new chapter for Beech Acres Parenting Center is about to begin! Since August, we’ve been working closely with the board, leaders from across the organization, key staff members, and an outside consultant on what’s next for Beech Acres. We’ve laid out an exciting, intentional, and an inspirational new plan for the next three years that will shape the future of Beech Acres Parenting Center for years to come. This new plan includes an exciting new mission and vision for the organization that respects our past but guides us into the future, a new set of values that reflects who we are and who we want to be as an organization, and three foundational new strategic priorities that will be implemented over the next three years.The Accelerating Impact chart on the next page outlines the Plan for you. Our leadership team is now developing the key initiatives that will allow us to reach our North Star goal of strengthening our foundation to reach more, serve more and influence nationally. Details will be shared in the coming months, but I am particularly excited about these opportunities that are before us:• Expansion to a national footprint inThe Character Effect™, Parent Connext™ and as a thought leader in our field.• Founder and leader of the #GreatKidsGreaterCincinnati mental wellness movement.• Establish a Social Enterprise Lab to explore mission-driven business lines.• Explore new service lines, including pre-school programs, new products, and publishing opportunities.• Double down on success with our highly acclaimed evidence-based programs including Foster Care and Adoption, Kinship Care, and Mental Health Services. For over 170 years Beech Acres Parenting Center has been serving parents, families, and children by adapting to an ever-changing landscape. Meeting parents, families, and children where they are. Helping them discover what’s strong with them, not what’s wrong with them.Today, we begin our next century of serving the community. Together – and with your continued support – let’s make the world a brighter place for children to grow up. Download the latest edition of Insiders’ Scoop here. Want to become a Beech Acres Insider? Make a donation today to help support parents, families, and children!

We know that any given night we have 1,800 children in need of a home in Hamilton County. We want to change that by hosting a virtual #TakeAChance event to bring awareness to the need for Foster Parents. This Virtual event will be Wednesday, March 30, 2022, 5:00p-9:00p. We want to first show the community’s need for foster parenting. We also want to show how easy it is to become a foster parent with the help and support not only of the Beech Acres Parenting Center staff but with the help of our foster parent network. Lastly, we want to share the impact that becoming a foster parent has on a child’s life. We need your help. Please share with your networks! Registration is now closed! Thank you. #TakeAChance

Introducing With All Families  For over 170 years, Beech Acres Parenting Center has been serving parents, families, and children in the Greater Cincinnati community. We’ve constantly grown and iterated to ensure that we are meeting parents where they are in their parenting journey with innovative solutions that cultivate their strengths and build resiliency.  Over the last several years we’ve relied on science and data to drive decisions about where are services are best deployed. We’ve introduced several initiatives to serve parents, families, and kids in schools, in pediatric offices, in the workplace, and of course in the community.  Introducing With All Families  With All Families joins The Character Effect™, Beyond The Classroom™, and Parent Connext ® under the Beech Acres Parenting Center umbrella of services. With All Families, represents our focus to reach all families regardless of how they are put together. Our team is equipped to support foster families, adoptive families, kinship families, and any family facing challenges and hardships that need empathy and help connecting to resources. Along with reaching families in schools (The Character Effect™, Beyond The Classroom) and in pediatric offices and the workplace (Parent Connext™), Beech Acres continues to meet families where they are in the community with the particular services they need to thrive.  With All Families represents the important work that is being done in foster care & adoption, Kinship Connections, and the Parent Enrichment Program (PEP).  Foster & Adoptive Care For individuals willing to open their hearts and their homes to our most vulnerable children, the Beech Acres foster care and adoption team has been supporting foster families for 40 years. Learn more about foster care and adoption. Kin Caregiver For a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or even a close friend taking care of a loved one’s child full time, this support network offers both individual resource navigation and group meetings. Kinship Connections is also able to provide support for teen moms, single parents, and those families facing financial hardships.  Parent For parents fulfilling a referral from Hamilton County Job & Family Services, the Parent Enrichment Program (PEP) is a non-judgmental, goal-driven parent and child-focused program. Beech Acres Parenting Center also serves young parents, parents who play both mom & dad, plus families who’s financial burdens are adding stress to their family home. Compassion is at the heart of what we have done for over 170 years. While the challenges that parents, families, and children face have changed, our caring approach has not. Empathy, love, kindness, and hope guide our services. We set an intention to be present with each of our clients, actively listen to their challenges, ask powerful questions, and offer solutions that enhance and improve their lives.​

Your children may have a lot of questions about things they may be hearing in the news lately. Even if you try and shield them from bad or scary news, kids are intuitive, they know when something is wrong. Large-scale news such as the geopolitical turmoil currently unfolding in Ukraine may be even more challenging for them to comprehend. The questions can turn into anxious feelings that may impact everything from bedtime routines to performance in school. It’s ok to talk to your kids about what’s going on in the world and what they may hear in the news or in adult conversation. They’re always listening to what’s going on.  Here are some tips from our parenting specialists to help you have these conversations. Children may hear and watch content about the war on the news, on social media, or on the playground that can be frightening and overwhelming for them. They may have questions about what they are hearing, but they may be too afraid to ask, or not know how to articulate what they are feeling. Consider monitoring what your child is watching (news, on TikTok, etc.) and try to avoid viewing repetitive violent and graphic images, which can be disturbing both for adults and children. Instead, seek out and share verified, positive stories of perseverance in light of tragedy with your child.  For parents and caregivers, it is important for you to handle your own emotions before having discussions about war with your child. Your children are listening to and watching how the adults around them are reacting to current events and they learn from your responses. Use your strength of honesty when speaking to your child about these difficult issues. They’ll recognize that you’re being genuine and appreciate the candor.  Have Intentional Conversations with your children Create a time and place for your child to ask you questions, but do not force your child to talk about it.  Try to use the questions our parent coach recommended in a recent Facebook LIVE,  ‘what are you wondering about?’ ‘what are you worried about?’  Listen to your children and answer their questions as best you can at your child’s appropriate developmental level. Affirm how your child is feeling and reacting to the news. Briefly, share how you’re feeling with your child. It’s ok to let them know if you’re concerned about recent events, but do not overwhelm them with your concerns. This intentional time can help your child focus and express their feelings in a safe and open manner. Next, provide support by exploring ways that children can share feelings (drawing, writing a story, playing, etc.). Create and stick with a consistent, predictable routine. Incorporate a mindfulness exercise before dinner or at bedtime. Simply stopping and focusing on breathing for a step or two can help your child (and you!) calm your mind. These tips will help your child feel safe.  Take Action For some kids, taking action may make them feel better. Find an organization, like UNICEF, that is providing direct relief to citizens in the affected region and make a donation for example.  Or for older children, teach them how to email or call their congressperson if they have strong opinions to share.  Monitor how your child is feeling, whether they are worried, and how they are doing physically (eating, sleeping, body aches, etc.). Consider a referral to a mental health professional if your child has ongoing persistent and upsetting thoughts, intense distress or anxiety about death, difficulties separating from their caregiver, has difficulties sleeping, and seems very overwhelmed by war or current events. Parent Connext™ Child Development specialists are always here if you want individualized support for your family if for example, you have family abroad or family in the military, which may heighten your child’s concerns.

Guest Blogger Deanna Martin, Senior Specialist, Center for Excellence Beech Acres Parenting Center is saddened and angered to hear of recent reports of lawmakers proposing bills that limit the rights of people who identify as LGBTQ and aiming to limit both freedoms of speech around sexual orientation and identity and interfering in the medical decisions of children and families.  We stand in solidarity with our LGBTQ children, families, and youth and support the wellbeing of all families. We denounce legislation that promotes behaviors that increase risk and decrease the health and wellbeing of the LGBTQ community.  As we navigate these challenging times together, we invite you to engage in behaviors that help young people thrive. Research from the Family Acceptance Project has shown there are over 50 family accepting behaviors that can reduce risk and promote well-being.   Here are some behaviors that you can engage in that will support your LGBTQ children and their friends.  Tell you LGBTQ/gender diverse child that you love them Support your child’s gender expression Ask your child if – and how – you can help them tell other people about their LGBTQ identity Show affection when your child tells you or you learn your child is LGBTQ Use your child’s chosen name and the pronoun that matches their gender identity Tell your LGBTQ/gender diverse child that you will be there for them – even if you don’t fully understand them.  Speak up when others make negative comments about LGBTQ people The children of parents who engage in these accepting behaviors have children that experience:   Better health Higher self esteem Stronger social support Better family relationships Less likely to be depressed 3 times less likely to think about suicide 3 times less likely to attempt suicide Less likely to have substance abuse problems Learn more about behaviors that support and hinder the health and well-being of LGBTQ people.

Warren County Connect is a collaborative of organizations serving Warren County that provide prevention services to children and families. The purpose of the collaboration is to be efficient and effective in utilizing resources across the community. Members of the group aim to minimize overlap of same or similar programs, to look for gaps in prevention services, and to assist members and schools to respond to emergencies and to emerging issues for youth. Beech Acres Parenting Center is proud to partner with Warren County Connect! Click here to learn more about this collaborative effort.

February 7-11 is National School Counseling Week! School counselors play an important role in schools. They help shape a school’s culture and community. They help students find and stay on the right path to success. This week we celebrate school counselors and the critical role they perform in schools. Looking for a way to say “thank you” to your favorite school counselor? Download and print this certificate! The genuine recognition is sure to brighten their day!