Kinship & Adoption Navigators
/in Assists Children, Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, Pregnancy & Parenting Services, Professional Counseling, Shelby, Specialized Counseling /by Andrea SkrlacOhioKAN
Kinship & Adoption Navigator Program
The program is designed to assist those who have adopted children as well as those who are providing kinship care. The first step to access the program is to call 1-844-OHIO-KAN to connect with a navigator who will talk with you to understand your situation and needs. If you and the navigator decide together that we can help you navigate and access important resources, we’ll walk through the OhioKAN BASICS overview to make sure we completely understand your family situation and can start making a plan together. We’ll use the OhioKAN Information Hub to review more than 8,000 records to find, analyze, and organize all of the resources available to you based on your exact situation, location, and needs. Based on our conversation and resource review, we’ll create a Personalized Resource Plan. This document becomes the action plan for navigating and accessing all of the local and statewide resources that fit your situation. With the support of dedicated site navigators here at CSSMV, OhioKAN’s 100% free services will help kinship and adoptive families in Champaign, Clark, Darke, Greene, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, and Shelby Counties navigate and connect with all of the resources available locally and statewide. For more information and helpful resources, as well as a directory of other regional partners serving other areas of Ohio, you can visit the OhioKAN website at https://ohiokan.jfs.ohio.gov. To connect with a navigator from ANYWHERE in Ohio, call 1-844-OHIO-KAN.Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley is thrilled to partner with OhioKAN, a new statewide flexible and responsive kinship and adoption navigator program designed to assist children, caregivers, and families.
The purpose of the Post Adoption Special Services Subsidy (PASSS) is to assist Ohio families after the finalization of their adoption. The subsidy is available to all adoptive families regardless of the type of adoption (international, attorney, public or private agency), with the exception of step-parent adoptions. The child DOES NOT have to meet either the federal or state definition of special needs to receive this subsidy. Each child may be eligible for up to $10,000 per year ($15,000 if residential treatment is recommended by a qualified professional).
PASSS funds may be used for reasonable costs of services to address the child’s physical condition, developmental disability, mental health, or emotional condition that either existed prior to the adoption or developed after the adoption and can be attributed to factors in the child’s preadoption background, medical history, or biological family’s background or medical history.
PASSS eligibility requirements:
- Child/young person resides in Ohio with the adoptive family
- Child/young person has been adopted by someone other than a step-parent
- Child/young person has a physical or developmental disability or mental or emotional condition that either existed before the adoption petition was filed or developed after the adoption petition was filed and can be directly attributed to factors in the child/young person’s pre-adoption background or medical history, or biological family’s background or medical history
- The child/young person is under the age of eighteen OR the child/young person is at least eighteen years of age and less than twenty-one years of age and has been diagnosed with a mental or physical disability
- Other sources of assistance are inadequate or are unavailable to meet the child/young person’s immediate needs
For more details about PASSS, click HERE.
Eligibility
While CSSMV’s Kinship Navigators serve the specific counties listed above, OhioKAN is a 100% free program available to all kinship and adoptive families in Ohio.
Contact
Call 1-844-OHIO-KAN (1-844-644-6526) to talk one-on-one with an OhioKAN Navigator. Phone lines are open Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m.
Location
CSSMV’s OhioKAN Navigators are based at our Center for Families on Brown Street in Dayton.

Eckerle Administration Center
922 West Riverview Avenue
Dayton, OH 45402
(937) 223-7217 or (800) 300-2937
General email: cssmv@cssmv.org
Navigation
Latest News
- Generations CampaignApril 27, 2022 - 7:15 pm
At Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley’s Annual Meeting on April 27, CEO Laura Roesch announced the public phase of a five-year comprehensive campaign inspired by the desire to broaden and enhance the agency’s impact as it enters its second century of service. The Generations Campaign will run through 2025, with a total fundraising goal of $10,000,000.