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Our generous donors get the Insiders’ Scoop on all things Beech Acres! Insiders’ Scoop provides a quarterly update to our valued donors including a message from President & CEO Laura Mitchell, stories of impact from our programs, and valuable information on how to get and stay involved with Beech Acres Parenting Center. Enjoy a digital version of the Insiders’ Scoop that was sent to donors last month. Want to be an Insider? Make a one-time or monthly donation today. Your support provides comprehensive mental health support and wrap-around services to children in schools. Your generosity equips parents with powerful tools and valuable skills through parent coaching in pediatric offices. Your gift inspires parents, grandparents, and other loving adults to care for children other than their own through foster and kinship care. Your compassion makes our community stronger. Thank you!

Recently, a client was referred to Beech Acres Parenting Center’s With All Families program. A series of unfortunate situations and bad luck left this mother struggling. Previously unaddressed mental health issues and temporary financial instability prevented her from providing the proper care her son needed at the time. Unfortunately, she was unable to properly care for her family or herself.   Mom was desperate to reunite with her son.   Mom was connected to With All Families– Prevention Services. This program provides comprehensive support for the “whole” parent, through a variety of proven and evidence-based methodology to help parents reach their goals. This mom had an important goal…to reunite with her son and significantly improve their lives.   Mom attended and completed four weeks of parenting classes and was assigned a family specialist for individual coaching. In these sessions, mom was able to set goals and build critical parenting skills. She was very intentional and dedicated to her progress. Mom attended all her required sessions and kept all her coaching appointments with her family specialist. She set specific goals to become a better mother, and established healthy boundaries with her son’s father, and worked towards financial stability.   During the coaching sessions, a family specialist discussed ways to foster active listening and respect along with supporting her son’s healthy development. Mom was always open-minded and excited to implement positive parenting strategies. She would actively seek feedback and would make the suggested changes to improve her approach to parenting. She even took the initiative to watch YouTube videos and discovered some exciting activities to build her son’s academic skills and physical development.  Mom was reunified with her son in May.    Mom is currently employed, the family is comfortably and safely housed, and they are thriving together. Her son is in daycare so that mom can go to work and provide for her family. Since the program she has maintained appropriate boundaries with her son’s father and has reported improved relationships in all aspects of her life. With All Families provided this mother not only with effective tools to improve her parenting but with the confidence in herself to be the mom she always wanted to be.   Learn more.  *Names have been omitted and circumstances changed to protect the identity of our client.  

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.​