I often find myself thinking about what we, as a community, owe the next generation.
What does it take to build a region where every child can thrive? Where families feel supported, communities are connected, and children have every opportunity to reach their full potential?
After decades of serving children and families across Greater Cincinnati, I can say with certainty that too many young people today are carrying burdens they were never meant to carry alone.
At Beech Acres Parenting Center, we work every day with children in schools, families facing adversity, foster and kinship caregivers, and parents doing their very best in an increasingly complex world. We see the challenges up close. More children are experiencing loneliness, anxiety,
emotional distress and disconnection. Families are navigating growing pressures, from economic uncertainty to the lasting effects of the pandemic and the complexities of life online.
The numbers are concerning. Nationally, diagnosed mental health conditions among adolescents increased by 35% between 2016 and 2023, with anxiety and depression leading the way. Yet fewer than half of children experiencing a mental health condition receive treatment from a mental health professional.
These statistics matter, but they point to a deeper truth. Too often, help arrives only after a crisis has already begun.
By the time a student is struggling in school, a family is overwhelmed, or a child enters foster care, challenges have often been building for months or even years. As a society, we invest tremendous resources responding to crises after they occur while investing far less in preventing them from happening in the first place.
Waiting comes at a cost.
It costs children. It costs families. It costs communities.
The economic cost of untreated mental health challenges is significant. The human cost is even greater. It is measured in lost opportunities, unrealized potential, and the futures of children who never received the support they needed when they needed it most.
If we are serious about helping children thrive, we must broaden our definition of prevention.
Prevention is not simply providing counseling before a crisis. It helps parents build confidence before stress becomes instability. It is equipping schools to recognize challenges before students fall behind. It is supporting families through hardship before a child enters foster care. And when children cannot safely remain at home, it means surrounding them with stable, nurturing relationships while working toward reunification whenever possible.
More than 175 years of serving children and families have taught us an important lesson: Strong children are built through strong relationships.
Our greatest opportunity is not simply to treat problems. It is strengthening the people, families, and systems that help children grow.
That is why Beech Acres has embraced a simple belief: Strength is the starting point. Wellness is the destination.
We see that philosophy at work every day. Nearly 5,000 parents and caregivers come to Beech Acres each year seeking practical tools, guidance, and encouragement. Almost 90% report feeling more confident and calm in their parenting. We see students gaining resilience through school-based support. We see biological families, foster families, and kinship caregivers building stability, healing and hope.
Time and again, we are reminded that families do not need judgment. They need support. They need connection. And they need opportunities to build on the strengths they already possess.
Now imagine what could happen if our entire region embraced that same approach.
Imagine a community where every parent knows where to turn when challenges arise. Where schools are equipped to support children's well-being before problems escalate. Where families receive help early enough to stay together whenever possible. Where fewer children enter foster care because communities have surrounded families with the support they need to succeed.
That future is possible. But it will not happen by accident. It requires a shared commitment to prevention, partnership, and investing in strengths before challenges become crises.
This year, Beech Acres is launching a new 10-year vision built around a bold goal: To equip 500,000 children and families to build on their unique strengths and achieve wellness, helping transform our region into a model for thriving youth and resilient, healthy communities.
We cannot achieve that goal alone.
Parents, educators, business leaders, healthcare providers, policymakers, faith communities, nonprofit organizations, and neighbors all have a role to play. The future our children deserve will not be created by any one institution. It will be built by a community that chooses to invest in children before they reach a breaking point.
The challenges facing today's young people are real. But so is the opportunity before us.
What gives me confidence is hope. Not hope as wishful thinking but hope as a confident expectation of what is to come. I hope that tomorrow can be better than today because of the choices we make and the actions we take together.
Over the next decade, Beech Acres will work to reach children and families earlier, strengthen pathways to wellness, partner to transform communities, and innovate what works so that more children and families can benefit. But this vision belongs to all of us.
Because the future is not something we simply wait for. The future is something we create.
We create it when parents are equipped with the tools and support they need to raise thriving children. We create it when schools invest in student well-being. We create it when health care providers, businesses, faith communities, nonprofits, policymakers, and neighbors come together around a shared belief that every child deserves the opportunity to succeed.
I hope that 10 years from now, we will not simply count the number of children and families we reached.
We will point to stronger families. Healthier communities. Greater resilience. More children are growing up with the support, relationships and opportunities they need to thrive.
And we will be able to say that together, we have created a different future for our region. A future where fewer children reach crisis, more families experience wellness, and every young person has a greater opportunity to achieve their full potential.
One journey. One region. One destination. Together, we can create a thriving region.
Laura Mitchell is the president and CEO of Beech Acres Parenting Center in Cincinnati, the 177-year-old nonprofit agency offering a range of services including foster care, kinship care, adoption, behavioral health support in schools, parent coaching and more. More information is at beechacres.org.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Help Cincinnati children before they reach the breaking point | Opinion
