Adoption Support Services
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 and post-adoption services. 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 available to adult and child adoptees and their families.
Parenting Classes
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.
Current Offerings:
- 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, click on the class flyer you’ll find on this page.
Teen Parents Learn
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
Resources offered through ParentLink include:
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:
- Home-based parenting preparation and education incorporating the Nurturing Parenting curriculum
- Assessment of your individual needs
- Setting parenting and personal goals
- Support and advocacy to help you meet your goals and gain skills and knowledge to become a nurturing parent
- Career development support
- Referrals to the local network of helping services
ParentLink services are available to mothers and fathers, regardless of whether you’re living together as a couple or co-parenting from separate households.
Mothers Empowered
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.
Eckerle Administration Center
922 West Riverview Avenue
Dayton, OH 45402
(937) 223-7217 or (800) 300-2937
General email: cssmv@cssmv.org
