WOOSTER — More young people in Wayne and Holmes counties who are going through a difficult time will be able to get help close to home. The Village Network celebrated the opening of its new Short-Term Group Home with a ribbon-cutting on Thursday, Oct. 29, at its Wooster Residential Campus, 2803 Akron Road, according to The Village Network’s announcement of the opening.
The new home will provide 10 short-term residential beds for boys and girls who may be at risk of an out-of-home placement, experiencing a disruption in their current placement, in need of respite care, or in need of intensive family stabilization services, The Village Network said. The program is designed to help young people and families receive support close to home while maintaining connections to their schools, communities and support systems.
“When a young person and their family are going through a difficult time, having support close to home can make a real difference,” Marnie Willett, Wooster regional director at The Village Network, said in The Village Network’s announcement. “This home gives us another opportunity to support young people during a challenging time while working alongside their families to help build stability. We want every young person who comes through our doors to know they’re not alone, that people care about them, and that we’re here to help them move forward.”
The home includes a sensory room, a therapy office, a family visit area, and spaces for transitional living and short-term respite, according to The Village Network. Services such as family counseling, mentoring and behavioral health support will focus on strengthening relationships, building coping skills, and helping families work through challenges.
The opening event was co-hosted by the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health and the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Wayne and Holmes Counties, The Village Network said. The project was made possible through Ohio Department of Behavioral Health capital funding made available through the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Wayne and Holmes Counties, along with investments from The Village Network and the local board.
Remarks at the ribbon-cutting came from Rich Graziano, president and CEO of The Village Network; Nicole Williams, executive director of the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Wayne and Holmes Counties; Dr. John Kennedy, chief medical officer of the Ohio Department of Behavioral Health; and Willett, according to The Village Network. Guests then had lunch and toured the new home.
The Village Network is not new to this work. Founded in 1946, it is a nonprofit behavioral health organization serving children, youth and families throughout Ohio through residential treatment, foster care, outpatient counseling, school-based services and community programs, according to the organization. Its stated aim is to help young people build resilience, strengthen families and create brighter futures — and the Wooster campus on Akron Road is its home base.
The short-term model is the point. A young person at risk of losing a placement, or a family that needs a brief respite before a hard stretch becomes a crisis, does not always need a long stay far away. Ten beds in Wooster mean Wayne and Holmes county families can keep a child near their own school and support network while counselors and mentors work with the whole family on stability, the organization said.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on
What we know: the home is open, it adds 10 beds at 2803 Akron Road in Wooster, and it serves boys and girls who need respite, stabilization or a short-term placement, according to The Village Network. What the announcement does not spell out is a public admissions phone path for families or a date by which the home expects to be at full occupancy — families in Wayne and Holmes counties are directed to The Village Network and the Mental Health and Recovery Board of Wayne and Holmes Counties for referrals.
The Wooster opening is one of several recent community investments aimed at keeping care local in Ohio, alongside efforts such as Habitat for Humanity and Ohio University building a home together in the Bobcat Build and a Bay Village mother and daughter making bowls together to fight hunger at Avon Lake.
What happens next is the quiet work: the first young people settling into the new home, family visits in the new visit area, and counseling aimed at sending each child back home more stable than they arrived. For families in Wayne and Holmes counties, that work now happens minutes away instead of counties away — and that, Willett said in the announcement, is what makes the difference.
Photo: Lugevas, CC BY-SA