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Family Nurturing Center among 17 organizations to receive Kosair Charities grants to prevent child abuse


Kosair Charities on Thursday awarded $1,300,000 to Family Nurturing Center, Kentucky Youth Advocates, and 17 additional community organizations, continuing their commitment to fund the Kosair Charities Face It Movement to end child abuse and neglect.

The funding allows community partners to conduct abuse recognition and prevention training sessions, engage parents through self-care workshops and support groups, host events that promote strengthening families, and advocate for those without a voice.

“As the region’s most comprehensive children’s charity, Kosair Charities prides itself on enhancing the well-being of kids by funding health care, research, education, social services, and child advocacy,” said Kosair Charities President Barry Dunn. “It is as important as ever to fight for children suffering from the scourge of child abuse and neglect. With these funds, and through our partner organizations, Kosair Charities continues to send a message that protecting kids must be a priority for all caring Kentuckians.”

Family Nurturing Center President and CEO Jane Herms speaks during Thursday’s announcement. (Photo from Kosair Charities)

The grant will help Family Nurturing Center increase access to parenting services and provide more flexibility with services to meet the unique needs of families in the Northern Kentucky Region.

“Face It funding has been a game changer for us, allowing Family Nurturing Center to expand and tailor our parenting services,” said Jane Herms, President/CEO of Family Nurturing Center. “The individual parent coaching funded through this grant provides targeted interventions to meet people where they are at. We’re grateful to Kosair Charities for supporting this pilot to help families in Northern Kentucky.”

Kosair Charities launched the Face It Movement in 2013, as it commemorated its 90th anniversary. They and 10 partners vowed to stop the increasing number of child abuse deaths in the Commonwealth. That effort now includes more than 125 dedicated partner organizations. While Kosair Charities funds Face It, Kentucky Youth Advocates facilitates the movement.

Face It directly addresses the unacceptable incidences of child abuse and neglect in Kentucky by promoting best practices in child abuse prevention and intervention, community engagement, and advocating for effective policies to improve the child welfare system. Kosair Charities has contributed over $10,000,000 to the Face It Movement since its inception.

“Kosair Charities’ humbling commitment to the Face It Movement is making a real difference in the effort to end child abuse and strengthen families in Kentucky,” said Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates. “The breadth of Face It’s partnership across the Commonwealth is indicative of the collaboration necessary to tackle an issue as complex as child maltreatment. Kosair Charities understands the need to analyze the data and advocate for policy change, while also investing in programs and best practices that aim to prevent maltreatment from occurring in the first place. We are thankful for Kosair Charities’ heart for kids and the chance for a healthy and hopeful childhood for all.”

While improving, Kentucky’s rate of child maltreatment remains nearly double the national rate. The latest data show the Commonwealth had 16,748 child victims of maltreatment in 2020, with the highest rate of victims under age one.

There are more than 125 partner organizations statewide lending their expertise in child abuse prevention efforts in the Face It Movement. Each community-based organization uniquely focuses on ending the cycle of child abuse by promoting healthy family relationships and educating, preventing, and providing healing treatment for child abuse and neglect.  The following organizations are the additional non-profit organizations receiving funds from Kosair Charities for these efforts:

• Family Nurturing Center – increase access to parenting services and provides more flexibility with services to meet the unique needs of families in the Northern Kentucky region

• Family Enrichment Center – provide child abuse prevention and recognition information, including on the Face It Movement’s TEN-4-FACESp Bruising Rule, in Allen, Barren, Butler, Edmonson, Hart, Metcalfe, Monroe, Logan, Simpson, and Warren Counties

• Play Cousins Collective – host parent support groups that connects African American families in Louisville to information on community resources, collective care, gentle parenting, their child’s developmental milestones and opportunities to connect and play with their children

• Archdiocese of Louisville – host Speak Up Be Safe trainings on body safety and child sexual abuse prevention for students and staff

• Backside Learning Center – implement parent support group to increase understanding of child abuse risk factors and prevention strategies

• Children at Play Network (CAPN) – support the Play for Families project to promote outdoor free play and connection among families

• ChooseWell Communities – launch the Healing Advocate role to provide more timely and culturally appropriate therapeutic support to parents of young children while navigating early recovery

• Community Coordinated Child Care (4-C) – expand awareness and education of child care providers to recognize, report, and prevent child abuse and neglect

• ECHO (Exploited Children’s Help Organization) – deliver child abuse prevention trainings to youth-serving organizations, businesses, and other concerned community members

• Family & Children’s Place – boost participation in Healthy Family Nights that focus on family engagement and parental involvement

• Healing TREE – host Silk Screening and Workshops focused on intimate partner violence prevention and recognition for youth and young adults

• Jewish Family & Career Services of Louisville – utilize the Family Strengthening Program to help families navigate life’s challenges and changes through a strengths-based, case management approach

• Kentucky Humanities/Kentucky Book Festival – distribute thousands of new books to elementary-middle school students at underserved rural schools across Kentucky and provide an in-person learning component featuring an author interview

• La Casita Center – continue to strengthen the awareness campaign for child abuse prevention in the Spanish language for the Latinx community and support the participants of the Youth Summer Camp

• Life Adventure Center – partner with Amachi of Central Kentucky to provide year-long mentorship programming

• Neighborhood House – provide integrative coaching for families and support the Youth Development Program

• Peace Education Program – host conflict resolution and mediation trainings with students, professional development programs for educators and youth workers, and serve young people in Navigators groups who are exposed to high levels of conflict

• Sowing Seeds with Faith – evaluate the development of social emotional learning of students in their programming

Kosair Charities


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