Parenting Plus – An Overview

            Ashland County is a special place. One can enjoy everything from a hike in the woods to dinner at a trendy downtown spot to a lecture series at our fine university. It is a section of Ohio that provides texture and depth, which helps to solidify the definition of small town America and all it has to offer. As anyone that drives past the sign at exit 186 off of 71 North knows, Ashland is the “World Headquarters of Nice People”. Those who are able to call Ashland County home can confidently take pride in the soil nourishing their roots.

            But places that boast the merits of Ashland County do not hold their shape unprompted. Alongside the beauty of our small pocket of the country exist imperfections and those who seek to bring improvement. One example is that of Ashland Parenting Plus, a non-profit agency housed in the Ashland Service Center located on State Route 60. To walk into Ashland Parenting Plus (APP) is to be met with the passion of those who work there. The rooms are full of hearts trained on purpose and eyes trained on visions of what could be. So what, exactly, is the vision of Ashland Parenting Plus?

            According to Executive Director Catherine Swope, APP sprouted from a group of people that perceived some needs in Ashland County and sought to meet them. The biggest issue they spotted was the alarming amount of teen moms in the community and their lack of parenting skills. Swope stated that, as this founding group began to work with those young mothers, they began to ask themselves, “Wouldn’t it be great if there were less teen moms to begin with?”

Eventually, the goal of APP moved toward getting in front of the problem of teen pregnancy before it occurred. Thus, Teen Pregnancy Prevention (TPP) groups were born. To this day, facilitators enter nearly every county school to help empower the students there to make informed, wise choices that impact their future for good. Over the years, APP has continued to seek to understand the needs in our community so as to better rise to meet them. APP’s programming now includes, in addition to Teen Pregnancy Prevention Groups, parent education, wraparound services, diversion mentoring, and coordination of Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for youth in the judicial system.

            Additionally, the summer months bring a wave of unique programming to the APP docket. The agency is currently in the throes of the Power Tools program, which is a six-week cooperative with Collaborative Partners, formerly Wager’s Way, to help clients build leadership skills. Once that is complete, APP will be offering the Life Skills program, which focuses on bolstering general knowledge and skill sets such as auto care, cooking, career planning, and relationship building. Swope lauds the importance of such programming, as it gives youth opportunities that steer away from unwise choices during potentially idle hours and “helps them work on good rather than poor skills.”

“I love the idea of walking alongside young people and adults, helping them…to build on the resilience that they already have, but also to build new resiliency, learn new skills, and to know that there is someone out there that does care about them and believes in them.”

Catherine Swope, Executive Director

As for Swope, she absolutely adores the work that APP does and the results it can yield in Ashland County. She states, “I love the idea of walking alongside young people and adults, helping them in their darkest hour and helping them to build on the resilience that they already have, but also to build new resiliency, learn new skills, and to know that there is someone out there that does care about them and believes in them.” Swope also has a great appreciation for the people with whom she gets to work, sharing that they are “a group of dedicated people that really want to see the best in young people and their families.”

            In the end, Ashland Parenting Plus is motivated by “the concept of building hope and changing the world, one person at a time.” Keep an eye out over the coming months for further exploration into the services and mission of Ashland Parenting Plus, where the vision for Ashland County is rife with possibility and tenaciously pursued.