1033 High Street, Worthington, Ohio 43085 | phone: 614-‐885-‐5020 | fax: 614-‐885-‐4058 | www.UMCHOhio.org
July 8, 2015 Dear Friends Across West Ohio, I hope this communication finds you well. I am writing to address the chatter in the news media lately about the Worthington campus land we at UMCH Family Services are selling. First, I’d like to resoundingly dispel the news reports that the land is abandoned. UMCH Family Services-‐-‐and our mission of strengthening children and their families-‐-‐is alive, well and very much operational. As many of you who have prayerfully supported us for so many years know, we have been and are operating from our Worthington Campus property, as well as from our Reynoldsburg office and in homes, community centers and schools across central Ohio and the surrounding communities. In fact, we are growing-‐-‐serving more than 1,000 children and their families each year. For that, we want to extend our deepest gratitude to you for your support of our mission through your continued prayers, support of $5 on the 5th, donations, volunteer work, and numerous other means. For more than 100 years, we have been a mission of the West Ohio Conference creating brighter futures by providing services to those most vulnerable among us. Now, we have the opportunity to create our own brighter future in ensuring the preservation and continuation of our mission. A mission that is desperately needed in the world we live in today. Our goal in the sale of our land is to create the underpinning to preserve the level and amount of care for thousands of children and their families well into the next 100 years. Since 2011, our agency has streamlined. We have been diligently working to increase the depth of our services in Treatment Foster Care, Adoption and Outpatient Mental Health; raise quality across the board; embrace innovations in working with children who have experienced trauma; and expand our reach to include serving more children and families. During the past two years, we have expanded our outpatient programs by 100%. We’ve added additional psychiatric team members. We have grown Treatment Foster Care by more than 30% and we are currently working with 40 families to find special needs adoptive placements. We are now in 60 schools in six school districts and have formed partnerships with community centers across Columbus. Plus, we have continued our quest to address the trauma our children and families face on a daily basis. As we seek to become industry leaders in evidenced-‐based models of care, all of our staff members are certified specialists in a cutting-‐edge model—Trauma and Loss in Children–that has proven it can improve the lives of children and their families. And, it’s working. More than 84% of the children referred to our Aftercare/Therapeutic
1033 High Street, Worthington, Ohio 43085 | phone: 614-‐885-‐5020 | fax: 614-‐885-‐4058 | www.UMCHOhio.org
Intervention (who were close to having to leave their homes) were still in their homes and attending school at six months after intake. And in the past two years, 81% of the kids in our Treatment Foster Care returned home, to a relative or have been adopted into a forever family. With your support and God’s grace, lives are being changed. And, so are legacies. While we are serving more children than ever before in our history and are having a positive impact on their lives, there are so many more who desperately need us. In today’s uncertain, broken, chaotic world the need for an agency like ours that seeks to strengthen vulnerable children and their families is beyond great. This makes the preservation and continuation of our mission one of our top priorities. We are grateful that over 100 years ago, God laid on the hearts of two Methodist ministers the notion to introduce a resolution to the North Ohio Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church for the establishment of a children’s home. We estimate over our history through this action, more than 50,000 lives have been changed through the “Children’s Home in Worthington”. And, their vision continues. Today, in meeting the needs of the vulnerable, we have gone from being “the home” to being hundreds of “homes” for children across central Ohio. We are at another monumental pivot point in the path to forging the future. This land in Worthington has been our home since 1911. And, the sale of it will mean the preservation of our mission, of us as your mission, doing work that really matters for the next 100 years and beyond. Thank you for your continued support. Sincerely,
Sean Reilly, Executive Director UMCH Family Services
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