LOVELAND, Ohio — According to the Brookings Institution, the suburbs in major cities like Cincinnati and Cleveland now house more low-income residents than urban areas. The Care Center is working hard to fill a growing need for services.
The Care Center is working hard to fill a growing need for services. The nonprofit in the Cincinnati suburb of Loveland has a simple approach: starting with a warm meal and a warm welcome, serving not just food but friendships.
“We’re all about relationships,” said Care Center executive director Greg Knake. “We have a lot of mentoring and one-on-one coaching opportunities, whether that be financial coaching, job coaching, or all of life coaching, because we know everybody needs somebody in their corner, everybody needs a network of support.”
Knake’s seen a huge increase in the need for services in the suburbs, and not just in Loveland.
“The whole outer ring of suburban Cincinnati is experiencing that exact same thing,” Knake said. “Milford’s experienced a 100% increase. As have Eastgate, Anderson and Batavia, not to mention Mason and West Chester. All those communities are facing those same challenges.”
He said new housing developments in downtown Cincinnati pushed out lower-income residents who’ve had to start over in the suburbs.
“The challenge is that even though people are moving, their resources haven’t necessarily followed them out yet, which is what we as the care center want to be all about specifically is bringing those resources, those best practice resources from around the city together under one roof here,” Knake said.
They offer everything from free counseling to haircuts.
Dress for Success has also established shop here too and the center offers resources for education, job training and a computer lab.
With health care, the center is partnering with Dr. Brien Polivika, from Loveland Chiropractic, and Dr. Gary Huber Personalized Medicine, offering free visits onsite.
The center also offers life enrichment classes on a variety of topics. Volunteer Jen Richardson first started coming as a client 15 years ago, getting help to buy diapers for the grandchildren she was raising. She also took a parenting class.
“I highly, highly recommend it,” she said. “They give awesome tips and tools and suggestions on how to deal with temper tantrums and getting your kids to try a variety of foods and just basically anything to do with kids.”
Right from the beginning, she and her family started volunteering at the center.
“The things that they offer up here are just fabulous to help people, you know, make it to the next step in their life to kind of help them get over those barriers that are stopping them,” she said.
Volunteer Kathy Key also started out as a client. Now, she and her mother and brother and other family members and friends regularly volunteer in the pantry that gives out free food and toiletries.
“I’ve been here for 18 years and I wouldn’t be here if it didn’t mean something. So it means a lot,” Key said. “And then to be able to volunteer for my mom with my brother and to be able to do this to help other people is amazing.”
Their ministry is also attracting some new volunteers, like college student Carson Evans.
“Honestly, I think the people impact me even more than I impact them,” Evans said. “It’s something about serving others just gives you back so much more than you ever give.”
“I love the opportunity to help people advance in life,” Knake said. “For us here, care center wise, that’s helping people get back to work, building basic life skills, getting unstuck in life through one-on-one, mentoring, encouraging. And so the opportunity to be able to partner with families and helping them do that is just super rewarding, rewarding work.”