Support Our Mission

Ohio’s Children and Families Need Your Help Now More Than Ever

Children and families in your own backyard who you would be giving a chance to have a brighter future – a future that could one day intersect with your own – need your help. With the economy uncertain, losses in government support have been devastating to Ohio’s children and families in need. So many more of them have fallen into poverty. As you consider your blessings, please make a generous donation for them to UMCH Families Services today.

With your help, we will continue to serve more than 1,000 children and families each year through our Adoption, Post Adoption, Treatment Foster Care and Outpatient Family Mental Health programs. We ask for your much-needed support as we address together the challenges of mental illness, child abuse and neglect, and the almost 3,000 of Ohio’s children who are in need of “forever” families. There are many ways you can help, both as an individual, and as part of a church or other organization.

$5 on the 5th

2022 $5 on the 5th Giving Events

For the cost of a cup of coffee you could change a life. On months that have a fifth Sunday, we at UMCH Family Services are asking each and every person in worship to give just $5 or more to help children and families. These are small individual gifts that multiply and help to change the lives of Ohio’s children and families who are looking for hope and healing. Your Church’s gifts will help us provide loving foster parents for children in need of a safe and secure temporary home; outpatient mental health counseling for families in need of extra care to stay strong and together; and adoptive parents for children who are looking for their own permanent families. The need is great. Together, we can be there to help Ohio’s children and families through this ministry. God is doing amazing things with your dollars through UMCH Family Services. Thank you for choosing to make all of this possible. 

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$5 on the 5th Social Media Post

$5 on the 5th PowerPoint Slide

Fund an adoption

Adoption Services is now a primary program and continues to grow quickly. We are serving 25 families in the adoption program and even more in our post adoption program. There are over 2700 children in the state of Ohio alone who are in need of an adoptive family. Often an adoptive family needs specialized mental health or counseling services to help keep the family from disrupting as they move through life’s stages. Funding for the Adoption Services program is needed for operating expenses and for support groups and counseling services. 

In addition, many adoptive families are burdened by the need to pay for their home study in an upfront, lump sum manner. The fee for the adoptive home study now exceeds $2,250. Private donors need to help “bridge” this cost because many potential families can afford the cost of caring for a child, but simply don’t have the upfront funding for the home study. This type of funding can be critical to whether the adoption happens. Your church can help by raising $2,250 to help a child become adopted!

Support fostering

We currently have nearly 70 UMCH foster families – wonderful, loving people who are called to their work with these children in need. These are children who have been removed from their homes because of abuse and neglect. These children used to be placed in a residential setting like our program that was recently closed. There are more than 60 children in UMCH foster homes today. They need your financial help so we can continue to be there for them. Your church can help by raising $1,000 to help “foster” a child in placement with a UMCH family!

Help children and families receive counseling

As fewer and fewer children are placed in out of home care, more and more of them need community based services. Our counselors go to where the need is. The need is all over Central Ohio, and it is great. Schools have lost their counselors and WFS now serves many schools. Children with mental and behavioral issues need extra help coping with their non-academic issues in the classroom. Teachers need help with understanding how they can best serve the needs of their entire class without neglecting the needs of the children in their class who have special needs. Your church can help by raising $750 to provide a child and family with counseling services. 

Most of our children and families live in poverty. They may obtain a Medicaid card that will enable them to receive services. What can be billed to Medicaid, however, is only the time that a counselor, or the doctor, nurse, case manager, etc., actually spends with a client. Everything else is a UMCH expense.

The need is great. Please help UMCH provide essential services to our shared children and families.  Through giving a personal donation, acting as a part of a church group, encouraging others to help, accepting a new child in your home, dedicating a Vacation Bible School offering to the children and families of UMCH Family Services…whatever you can do, however you can do–it makes a difference. For more information please contact us. You can make a donation by clicking the button below.

Kroger community rewards

Join the Kroger Community Rewards Program and give back by simply shopping and swiping your Kroger Plus Card. All you need to do is click the link below, create an account and then select UMCH Family Services under the Community Rewards Program.

Kroger Community Rewards Website

Amazon Smiles program

Use the link below when you want to shop on Amazon and .5% of the price of eligible purchases will be donated to UMCH. Once you have registered you can use the link for future purchases or just make sure you are shopping on smile.amazon.com.

Amazon Smiles Website

Become or help us recruit foster or adoptive parents

The need for foster and adoptive parents is great.  Find out more about how you can help here.