The new center inside the facility will provide on-site laundry, additional restroom and shower facilities, and a full kitchen for moms and families to use while their infants are receiving care at Brigid’s Path. Families will be able to start using the facility immediately.
“Especially in this time of uncertainty, our goal is to give our families the space they need to make the best decisions they can for their futures,” said Jill Kingston, executive director, of Brigid’s Path. “This new family advocacy center allows us to solve the physical and immediate needs of our families, which lets them focus on bonding with their babies and making plans for the future.”
Kingston expects Brigid’s Path to care for more and more babies in the coming weeks and months.
As a licensed Children’s Crisis Care Facility for the state of Ohio, Brigid’s Path focuses on serving families impacted by addiction during normal operations. The license also allows the team to help babies and moms who are in crisis for other reasons.
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“We can’t know exactly how the pandemic will impact our community,” Kingston said. . “We’re here to help as many families as we can for as long as we can. This new space will be so helpful in the coming weeks and months as we try to serve as many families as we reasonably can. We are here to help.”
Eventually, additional educational opportunities like cooking or finance classes will be offered in the new family advocacy center, and an on-site visitation center will be available for program graduates.
Funding for the $340,000 project was made partially possible by grants from The Dayton Foundation and The Virginia W. Kettering Foundation.
Brigid’s Path is working to secure additional funding for furniture, appliances and staffing in the new center and hopes to have the center fully operational later this year.
In 2018, Brigid’s Path cared for 33 babies and supported their mothers in treatment. The nonprofit says it is on track to serve 60 babies and families this year.
Without Brigid’s Path, more than half of those babies would have been discharged directly into foster care from the hospital. Instead, they were able to safely go home in the care of family.
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