Adoption is a life-long process and each adoption is unique and special. Catholic Social Services of the Miami Valley offers expertise in adoption services including general adoption information, post-legal services, and birth options counseling. We also support adoptive families through the SAFE Counseling program, educational programming, and support for adoptees.
Whether you’re pregnant and considering making an adoption plan, you’re an adoptee looking for information on your birth family, you’re looking for information about how to adopt a child, or your family includes an adopted child, we have expertise to assist you. The CSSMV counseling program is always available to adult and child adoptees and their families.
Birth options counseling is for any pregnant woman at any stage of her pregnancy who is trying to decide whether she is ready to become a parent, or if making an adoption plan would be the best choice. This service is also available to birth fathers and other family members seeking to help. A counselor can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
In this process, a CSSMV counselor will help you carefully weigh your options. The core of the process includes an exploration of facts and feelings. Other options beyond parenting and traditional adoption may include placing your baby with a relative or a family you already know.
If you decide to make an adoption plan for your child, we can help you. Our state-certified adoption counselor can give you information about open, confidential, and identified adoption options, as well as explaining what to expect from both emotional and logistical/legal perspectives. We work with Adoption Circle — a private, non-profit, Ohio-licensed adoption agency — to assist you with adoption placement. We are here to support the birth mother and her family as well as the birth father. Our caring counselors are here to offer ongoing support before, during, and after whatever decision you make.
If you decide to parent your child, we can help. CSSMV offers pregnancy and parenting supports. We can give you information and link you to resources for prenatal care, housing, financial assistance, home visiting services, parenting classes, support groups, childcare, and other services available in your community that will help you and your baby.
Our ParentLink team offers an ongoing series of free classes in Dayton that can help you gain the knowledge and tools to become a more confident and nurturing parent. Our 6-session Nurturing Parenting class is designed for parents, guardians and caregivers of children age 0 to 12. Nurturing Co-Parenting 101 is offered monthly, as a one-session class that can help you learn skills and techniques for better co-parenting with your child’s other parent. For more information about these classes and how to register, click on the class flyers you’ll find on this page.
Teen Parents Learn can help you stay in school while you’re pregnant. find services & resources for a healthy pregnancy. return to school after your baby is born. balance the demands of going to school and being a parent. graduate from high school and get your diploma. learn to take care of your child...and yourself. become a terrific parent.
Teen Parents Learn is designed to help young parents complete high school and graduate with their diplomas. We work with pregnant and parenting teens who are still in school, as well as with those who left school as teen parents and are now ready to work toward high school graduation.
Our Family Life Coaches provide these young moms and dads with parenting education as well as the skills and support they need to stay in school and/or complete their high school education. We provide support as they overcome obstacles and become successful parents, while encouraging them to graduate.
This program is funded in part by United Way of the Greater Dayton Area
The Teen Parents Learn program launched in the summer of 2017 through a collaboration among Catholic Social Services, Lifestages Centers for Women, the Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation, LifeSkills High School, and the Montgomery County Educational Service Center. As part of Montgomery County’s priority for improving graduation rates for teen parents, our program goals include increasing student attendance rates in school, decreasing school dropout rates, and reclaiming youth who drop out of school because of challenges related to pregnancy or parenting.
ParentLink is the name for our “family” of pregnancy and parenting support programs for mothers and fathers. We provide home-based parenting education, supportive encouragement, and access to both group and one-on-one supports.
ParentLink offers participation incentives and provides opportunities for parents to meet and share the commitment of being loving and caring parents. If you’re expecting a child or if you’re the parent of a child who’s not yet school-age, this free program may be right for you.
Catholic Social Services’ home visiting services include:
ParentLink services are available to mothers and fathers, regardless of whether you’re living together as a couple or co-parenting from separate households.
One of the more significant outcomes of the program has been the natural bond and subsequent support networks which emerge among the women. Their friendship, created through this shared experience, has made them stronger and more confident in their role as mothers.
In this unique program, CSSMV teams up with Lifestages Centers for Women. While Lifestages offers CenteringPregnancy® group prenatal care, CSSMV’s Family Life Coaches provide parenting preparation, nurturing parenting education, home visiting, and community resource case management to help build strong life skills for baby, mom, dad and family. Mothers Empowered is a wraparound support program, with expectant mothers receiving prenatal care in small groups with others whose due dates are in the same month. The groups meet regularly and include quality prenatal care by medical providers, plus educational and emotional supports. A Family Life Coach from Catholic Social Services is at every meeting, and also encourages parents to participate in one-on-one parenting sessions at their homes. Prenatal Centering® groups meet monthly at first, and as due dates approach they meet every two weeks. Once the babies are born, CSSMV’s Family Life Coaches facilitate ongoing group meetings focusing on peer support and parenting education, as well as ongoing one-on-one home visits.
