Ohio to launch child wellness campuses with $20M investment

By Farah Siddiqi

Ohio is preparing to launch new regional child wellness campuses.

The facilities are meant to address the needs of children in crisis, who sometimes have to sleep in offices or hotels when timely foster-care placements can’t be secured. The state budget sets aside $20 million over two years to fund the initiative. The campuses will offer a trauma-informed alternative for youth awaiting foster-care placement.

Jeremy Kohomban, president and CEO of The Children’s Village in New York, said Ohio has the chance to follow proven models emphasizing family connections.

"We are considered the leaders in short-term behavioral and mental health inpatient treatment for young people," Kohomban explained. "It's completely family focused, and it is one that I think Ohio is also looking to develop."

Ohio’s Public Children Services Association said the goal is to create short-term, trauma-informed spaces for assessment and stabilization, not traditional group homes or residential facilities.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation cited The Children’s Village as an example of shifting from long-term institutional care to prevention, by emphasizing quick assessments, therapy and family engagement to move children toward permanency.

In Cuyahoga County, The Centers' "H.O.P.E. Campus" is already under renovation, with plans for more than 50 beds and 18 emergency suites. It plans to open a Welcome Center by next fall to begin serving youth in crisis.

Kohomban cautioned success depends on accountability and ensuring the system avoids past mistakes.

"Every day in a residential bed away from family or from love is a denial of a basic human right," Kohomban asserted. "Kids need love and they need family. And if they don't have family, we need to create family."

Children’s advocates said Ohio’s wellness campuses could reduce the number of youth cycling through the system and improve long-term outcomes but only if they are well-funded, family-centered and closely monitored for compliance.