The Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital
Connection to Moving Health Care Upstream
The Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center (“Mayerson Center”) serves as the anchor organization for the Moving Health Care Upstream (“MHCU”) team in Cincinnati, Ohio. In partnership with five pediatric primary care practices, the Mayerson Center is striving to implement the Safe Environment for Every Kid (SEEK) tool. This tool allows pediatric primary care providers to identify and address risk factors for maltreatment in the children they treat. Providers receive training on interviewing families, addressing their unique needs, and offering education and/or referrals to other providers as needed. To better implement the SEEK tool, the Cincinnati community formed a collaborative called Joining Forces for Children.
Our Community & Need
The Mayerson Center is a program focused on investigating and treating child abuse, and each year serves more than 2,000 children considered to be potential victims of abuse. The Mayerson Center is located near Avondale, one of the poorest neighborhoods in Hamilton County, Ohio.
The MHCU team seeks to partner effectively with the many existing community initiatives that share similar goals. It also strives to create a system of communicating, collaborating, and making referrals across different sectors in order to better address the multi-faceted needs of children and their families.
Our Solution
Through the Joining Forces for Children collaborative, the community aims to build an infrastructure of providers that can better identify and address adversity and toxic stress in children and their families. The collaborative organizes and delivers its efforts through three work groups: (1) Education and Awareness, focused on informing the community about the risks of adversity as well as factors that promote resilience and improve health outcomes; (2) Advocacy and Policy, focused on educating policy makers about the lifelong consequences of adversity and practices that enhance the well-being of children and their families; and (3) Activities and Program Development, focused on building a community support system that will enable children and their families to thrive.
Our Community Partners
Community partners for Cincinnati’s MHCU team provide extensive support and engagement in the Greater Cincinnati region. Partners have devoted key personnel to lend their expertise to the Joining Forces for Children collaborative’s three work groups, and also to provide leadership for the MHCU team’s Steering Committee. The collaborative is in the process of developing an action plan, and is prioritizing the engagement of community members in its next steps. Community partners include the following:
- 4C for Children
- Beech Acres Parenting Center
- Child Focus, Inc.
- The Children’s Home of Cincinnati
- Children, Inc.
- Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
- Cincinnati City Council – Office of Yvette Simpson
- Cincinnati Federation of Teachers
- Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency
- Cincinnati Public Schools
- Cincinnati Recreation Commission
- Cincinnati Youth Collaborative
- Consortium for Resilient Young Children
- Elder High School
- Family Nurturing Center
- GLAD House
- Greater Cincinnati Foundation
- Hamilton County Job and Family Services
- Hamilton County Public Defender’s Office – Guardian ad litem Division
- Harmony Project
- Legal Aid Society of Southwest Ohio, LLC
- Lighthouse Youth Services
- MindPeace
- Northwest Local School District
- Santa Maria Community Services
- Solutions Community Counseling and Recovery Services
- St. Aloysius
- St. Joseph Orphanage
- Success by Six, United Way of Greater Cincinnati
- Tristate Trauma Network
- ProKids
- YWCA of Greater Cincinnati
For More Information
If you would like more information about the upstream work happening in our community please contact:
Emily Vollmer
Community Outreach Specialist
Mayerson Center for Safe and Healthy Children
Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center
Emily.Vollmer@cchmc.org
