Groundwork Ohio Roadshow 2026: Athens County
Updated: 22 minutes ago
Groundwork Ohio’s 2026 Roadshow continued in Athens County on Wednesday, September 30, where conversations with community partners highlighted both the strength of Southeast Ohio’s local networks and the challenges of delivering services to families across rural communities.
The day began at the Survivor Advocacy Outreach Program (SAOP) Child Advocacy Center, where Groundwork Ohio met with partners working across children’s services, behavioral health, substance use treatment, developmental disabilities, child advocacy, and other community-based services in Athens, Hocking, and Vinton Counties. The conversation focused on childhood trauma, prevention, poverty and material hardship, transportation, parenting support, and the growing cost of responding to families once they are already in crisis.
Later, the team visited Hopewell Health Centers, beginning with a tour of its new facility before sitting down with staff to discuss behavioral health, Early Intervention, parenting services, workforce challenges, and what it takes to provide services across rural Southeast Ohio.
Athens County: Prevention Requires More Than a Program
At the SAOP Child Advocacy Center, transportation, access to healthcare, affordable child care, and safe community spaces emerged as barriers affecting families with young children.
For rural families, access means more than simply having a service available in their community. Families may have to travel significant distances, lack reliable transportation, or be unaware that a program or service is available to them.
The conversation repeatedly returned to prevention. Partners working with families affected by substance use discussed how fear of judgment or Children’s Services involvement can prevent pregnant women and parents from being honest about what they are experiencing and seeking help earlier.
Parenting support was another priority. Providers described parents working to break cycles of generational trauma while learning skills they may not have experienced in their own childhoods. But simply funding a parenting class is not enough. Families may also need transportation, child care, food, or other supports to participate.
One example captured this need for flexibility. Providers described spending significant staff time trying to help a family repair an accessible van when the actual solution was approximately $1,000. Participants asked what could happen if families had access to flexible dollars to solve immediate needs like transportation, pest control, or other household challenges before they become larger crises.
Trust Is Part of the Infrastructure
Community partners emphasized that families also have to trust a service before they will use it.
Families may hesitate to allow providers into their homes because of concerns about Children’s Services or other systems. In rural Appalachian communities, having someone a family already trusts makes the connection can make a significant difference.
Strong collaboration between organizations can help build those connections. Athens County Children’s Services’ school outreach caseworkers were highlighted for helping bridge schools, families, and community resources. Partners also discussed progress strengthening collaboration through the Athens Child Advocacy Center’s multidisciplinary team.
That prevention work is becoming increasingly important as the cost of responding after a family reaches crisis grows. Athens County Children’s Services reported placement costs increasing approximately 40% over the past two to three years. At the same time, the region has fewer foster homes, particularly therapeutic foster homes, sometimes requiring children to be placed far from their families and communities.
Hopewell Health Centers: Local Services Exist, but Families Have to Reach Them
At Hopewell Health Centers, the Groundwork Ohio team toured the new facility and then sat down for a roundtable discussion, where another side of the same challenge was heard: services can exist locally and still remain inaccessible if families are not connected to them.
Hopewell staff described families being told that parenting, infant and early childhood mental health, attachment, or bonding services were unavailable when those services were already being offered locally. In some cases, families eventually discovered the services through another connection. Others may never have learned they existed.
Providers also described receiving referrals after a child had already been removed from the home, despite evidence-based parenting services being available earlier. Their message was simple: if the goal is prevention, families need to be connected to prevention services before they reach crisis.
The conversation also raised concerns about families being referred far outside their communities even when qualified local services are available. Participants stressed that being an underserved region does not mean Southeast Ohio lacks expertise.
Strengthening local providers means investing in organizations that already understand the geography, know the resources, and have established relationships with families.
A Workforce That Cannot Survive on Passion Alone
Workforce challenges were another consistent theme.
Hopewell staff shared examples of case management positions starting around $14 per hour, bachelor’s-level licensed social work positions around $18 per hour, and master’s-level dependent licensed social work positions around $21 per hour.
Participants challenged the idea that the region simply has a workforce shortage.
People may want to enter these professions, but education and licensing requirements, demanding work, secondary trauma, and low wages make it difficult to recruit and retain them.
Staff described remaining in the field because they care deeply about their communities, while acknowledging that relying on personal sacrifice is not sustainable.
Rural Communities Still Need Basic Infrastructure
Early Intervention provided one of the clearest examples of the rural funding challenge.
Hopewell staff described smaller counties receiving too little funding to independently support the professionals needed to operate services. One example included seven therapists covering nine counties across occupational therapy, physical therapy, and speech services.
Providers also discussed long travel distances, flooding, road closures, and reimbursement structures that do not always reflect the realities of reaching families in rural communities.
Smaller populations may mean fewer families served, but counties still need a basic level of staffing, transportation, administration, and professional expertise.
One Community, One Consistent Message
Across both Athens County stops, the message was consistent: Southeast Ohio does not lack people who know their communities or want to support families.
At the SAOP Child Advocacy Center, partners described what families need to prevent trauma: trusted relationships, transportation, parenting support, flexible resources, and help before challenges become crises.
At Hopewell Health Centers, providers showed what happens when the local infrastructure designed to provide that help is underfunded, stretched across multiple counties, or disconnected from the systems making referrals.
The lesson from Athens County was clear: creating services is only part of prevention.
Families need to know those services exist, be able to reach them, and trust the people providing them. And local organizations need the resources and flexibility to respond to what families in their communities actually need.
Learn More
Explore Groundwork Ohio’s county fact sheets to learn more about the data behind this Roadshow stop.
