MOUNT VERNON — The four rooms on the second floor at 19 ½ E. High St. are small, but big enough to help Knox County youths grow.
Advocates For Families held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday to celebrate moving into the East High Street office.
The organization, formerly known as Ashland Parenting Plus, offers youths a stable relationship through its mentoring and CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) services.
Executive Director Greg Ashbrook II said the organization previously operated out of a space in the juvenile probation office. However, staff additions made that space a tight fit.
“We’re really excited to grow into a place where we can start making it our own and start coming in here and working with families, working with kids to help them grow,” he said.
AFF has offered CASA services in Knox County for five years. It began offering mentoring services July 6.
“We’ve been really fortunate to get a lot of support from Knox County. We couldn’t do what we do for [the CASA] program and for our mentoring program without the help of the community and the donations that we get to continue to fund that program,” Ashbrook said.
Advocates for Families received grants from Knox Community Foundation and Ariel Foundation, as well as private donations, to help support both programs.
“We’ve also been getting a lot of support from Judge [Jay] Nixon about expanding our services down here and providing a mentoring program, so we have launched that,” Ashbrook said.
Ashbrook said the mentoring program will help kids who need a positive role model.
“[We’ll] walk alongside them and help them learn to make better decisions and continue to grow and seek positive elements,” he said.
Caleb Shriver presented a proclamation on behalf of the Secretary of State’s Office.
Advocating for Knox County youth
CASAs work with youths who are removed from a household due to abuse or neglect. The relationship typically lasts a minimum of two years.
Nixon reached out to Ashland Parenting Plus in 2021 because the court wanted a nonprofit partner to run Knox County’s CASA program.
Doing it in-house, he said, would have “cost an exorbitant amount of money to the taxpayers.”
“This is a much more cost-effective model, and it gives a little separation between the court and the CSA program,” Nixon said.
Separation reflects the perspective of a nonadversarial, independent organization, Nixon said. The goal was to get as much information about the family situation as possible.
“The more information I have, the better decision I can make, and that’s what they do. They give me a wealth of information,” Nixon said, adding the CASAs go above and beyond writing reports.
“I feel like I know these families a lot better now, and I can relate, whether it’s good things or bad things,” he said.
Nixon said CASAs hold families accountable.
“The fact that the parents know that, I think pushes them to improve and do better,” he said.
CASAs meet with the youth at least once a month.
They also meet with the biological parents, talk with counselors, caseworkers and school officials, and advocate for the child’s best interests in court.
“The parents have their attorney, the state has their attorney. The kids are sometimes just left in the middle with other people almost fighting over what’s best for them,” said Megan McCarty, assistant director at Advocates For Families.
Knox County has 12 CASAs. Each typically handles one youth, sometimes more.
Mentoring program emphasizes goal-driven relationships
Advocates For Families designed its mentoring services for youth age 8 to 21.
“We want to make sure they have a voice in the services they’re getting. What we found is if we get too much younger than 8, then the kids aren’t really able to advocate for what it is they want to improve on,” Ashbrook said.
“We don’t always see the change we make, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Megan McCarty, assistant director Advocates For Families
AFF took over Ashland County’s program in 2007 and brought it to Knox County this summer.
Two staff members provide the mentoring services and meet with the youths every seven to 10 days.
The program accepts referrals from agencies, schools, the courts and parents.
McCarty said the program is unique because youths set the goals and have buy-in into the program.
“We’ve learned through our years of doing this that if the kids don’t buy into the program, if they’re not into the services, it’s something they don’t grow from,” Ashbrook said.
“It makes it feel like it’s a consequence or something only for for bad kids, and that’s not the thing at all.”
Ashbrook said mentors emphasize grades, graduation, making good decisions, and learning to deescalate friction points in the home.
McCarty said that while Ashland County CASAs have referred youth to the mentoring program, Knox County has no overlap.
However, Ashbrook said that for confidentiality’s sake, AFF treats the programs like separate organizations.
Each program has its own data entry portal, and mentors and CASAs do not share notes.
