Elsmere council allocates $100,000 to Children’s Home of Northern Kentucky

ELSMERE, Ky. — Elsmere Metropolis Council has allotted $100,000 in federal funding to the Youngsters’s House of Northern Kentucky

Elsmere’s contribution got here by funding town obtained as a part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) that Congress enacted in March 2021 for COVID reduction.

Metropolis Council mentioned that native governments are permitted to spend its ARPA funding “for the aim of responding to the general public well being emergency by the availability of behavioral well being care … and behavioral well being services.”

“That is cash that will likely be tremendously well-spent,” mentioned Elsmere Mayor Marty Lenhof. “As a retired instructor, I acknowledge the necessity for behavioral and psychological well being providers in our faculties, and I do know what excellent providers the Youngsters’s House of Northern Kentucky supplies to our faculties and all through the broader Northern Kentucky neighborhood.”

Rick Wurth, the chief government officer of the kids’s residence, mentioned they’re eternally grateful for the council’s management and generosity.

“Elsmere’s funding of $100,000 is critically essential to our motion ahead in expending psychological well being providers to Northern Kentucky youth and households,” Wurth mentioned.

Wurth mentioned the Youngsters’s House of Northern Kentucky’s behavioral healthcare program influence greater than 3,000 people annually by remedy providers, therapeutic day college and different school-based providers.

Elsmere Metropolis Administrator Matt Dowling mentioned the council acknowledged one of many main focuses of the ARPA funding is straight making an attempt to help residents who’ve been experiencing psychological well being points as a result of COVID pandemic.

Dowling mentioned he believes there is a rising want for the providers the kids’s residence supplies.

“Sadly, there are some gaps in providers and protection with regards to behavioral and psychological well being, and the Youngsters’s House of Northern Kentucky does an awesome job filling these gaps,” Dowling mentioned.

Wurth additionally mentioned the prolonged pandemic has exacerbated the necessity for habit remedy and psychological well being help.

He additionally mentioned public college superintendents have requested for a excessive variety of college students to be referred for screenings and assessments, in addition to therapeutic interventions.

Apart from Elsmere’s contribution, the Youngsters’s House of Northern Kentucky additionally obtained funds from the Metropolis of Covington ($500,000) and the Metropolis of Union ($100,000).

“We hope different communities throughout Northern Kentucky step up with funding for the Youngsters’s House,” Mayor Lenhof mentioned. “In spite of everything, we’re all on this collectively.”