Area Foster Care Agency Expanding

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – The need for foster care is not a new concern but is one that continues to grow.  

Journey Home Foster Care Executive Director Charity Wheeler recently apprised the Muskingum County Commissioners to work the agency has been providing within the community. 

“So last year, Journey Home expanded our program from just foster care to include what’s called an independent living arrangement,” Wheeler said. “And that is a program that is designed to assist youth who are emancipating from foster care; to help them kind of get ready to be on their own, once they hit that 18 or once they graduate high school and they are on their own. That has been a really big success for us.”

Journey Home is a regional foster care and adoption agency that has been serving Muskingum County youth since 2018. But as times change, so does the complexity of how children can be best served. 

“This year we have decided that we’re going to take it a step further and we are going to expand our programming to not only include foster care, adoption and independent living but also to include a group home,” Wheeler said. “As far as how we got to the group home space, we have a lot of referrals that come across our desk that ask for specific… they want group homes, they need a group home. This kid has been identified as needing a group home. So we are trying to get to a place where we can assist counties. All of our counties, including Muskingum County, as best we can, in those areas of need.”

Construction on the group home is already underway and the facility will be staffed 24/7 to help mentor the kids into adulthood.