OHIO CITY, Ohio — Since 1981, Providence House, in Ohio City, has provided housing for babies and children while their parents get back on their feet. 

• A non-profit organization in Cleveland is working to keep children out of the foster care system
• The kids are able to stay for 24 hours to 60 days. Parents may be experiencing things like homelessness, drug or alcohol addiction or illnesses
• The program has a 98 percent success rate of keeping children out of foster care

“We’re really focused on providing temporary emergency shelter to families who are in crisis,” said Kayla Webb, external relations manager.

External Relations Manager Kayla Webb says the kids are able to stay for 24 hours to 60 days. Parents may be experiencing things like homelessness, drug or alcohol addiction or illnesses.

“About 70% of our parents suffer first... they come to us. I really just need your help to do X, Y or Z. I need to get connected to this resource. I need to secure housing, and whatever that looks like for them,” said Webb. “We're going to be connecting them to resources within the community, and making sure that they've got a little bit of extra time.”

They have 30 beds right now, but are in the process of building a house on Cleveland’s east side— adding 20 more beds and bringing the number of children they can serve each year to 600. 

“And so, we're really excited about that because last year, 450 children were either unserved or wait-listed and of those, most are from the east side, about 60 to 70% of those children, and so, going right into that neighborhood, being able to serve transportation, is an issue for a lot of our families,” Webb said.

Housing and child safety are at the core of what Providence House does. However, they also work really closely with parents.

“Part of our parent engagement is actually the parents must visit, and the requirement is two to three times a week,” said Webb. “Most parents are doing well above that because, you know, it's their children, so they want to see them if they can't make it for some reason...they're calling, but also we request that they do, or require that they do case management one to three times a week, depending on what their situation is.”

This approach of working with parents to get back on track is working. 

“We know that 98 percent of our families are reunited and stay out of foster care, which is incredible, and then about seven years ago, we did a study to see. So, we know after those 30 days it's 98 percent, but what happens down the line? Well, we found out was an 82 percent of our families are staying out of foster care,” said Webb.