Ravenna – Children’s Advantage formally opened their Family Center on 5968 New Milford Rd. Ravenna on August 7th.
The Family Center cost around $600,000 to acquire and renovate and was paid for with help from a $367,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and $125,000 from the Portage County Mental Health and Recovery Board. The Portage Community Bank also helped finance a loan for the remainder of the costs.
The goal of the Children’s Advantage Family Center was developed to support hope and healing for the whole family by providing one location for comprehensive care.
CEO Kathy Regal explained, “We saw the need to expand our services to treat the whole family rather than just focusing on the children – One of the things we saw emerging in the last few years — with the drug epidemic in the community, we saw so many children being removed from their natural families, children who were losing their parents through the drug epidemic. We started talking about a model of care to treat the whole family, and we developed the Family Center to do just that, to really look at the intergenerational trauma, the intergenerational poverty issues that affect the whole family.”
The new facility will allow for more individual and family counseling, parenting and kinship programs, programs for transitional youth and adults to address poverty, the family impact of trauma, and youth after-school group programming.
These services are an addition to our long-term headquarters located on North Chestnut Street.
Founded in 1975, Children’s Advantage is a nonprofit organization that provides behavioral and support services to children and adolescents from birth to age 18 years and their families.
The mission of Children’s Advantage is to nurture the growth of children and families through quality service, community partnerships, and advocacy. Children’s Advantage is in the business of changing and shaping lives. The work we are aimed at is providing a holistic approach to solving some of our society’s biggest challenges.
For more information about how they can help, please visit www.childrensadvantage.org or call 330.296.5552
