Safe Families for Children helps Northeast Ohio parents in need of support

Light-night diaper changes. Hours of crying. Wails for the other parent. Donovan and Denique Young have experienced it all. 

Here’s the thing, though: they don’t have kids. They’re volunteers with the Northeast Ohio chapter of Safe Families for Children. As such, they step in as hosts when parents in dire straits have nowhere else to turn. 

“It’s definitely an act of service,” said Denique Young, who got involved with Safe Families through City Church Heights in Cleveland Heights. “We saw other families doing this and realized this would be a good way for us to serve the Lord and our community in a tangible way.”

To be clear: the Youngs are not foster parents. They’ve never hosted a child longer than a few days. (Nationwide, the average is one month.) What they offer through Safe Families – the local chapter of which turns 10 this month – is a haven when a parent or couple is in crisis and needs a little time on their own, without their children. 

They make it possible for desperate parents to take job interviews, secure stable housing or work a few extra shifts. They also help families dealing with housefires, medical emergencies, domestic violence, or the criminal justice system. 

All of this they do for the children, to provide a measure of stability and ward off conditions that can deteriorate and lead to child abuse. (April also happens to be National Child Abuse Prevention Month.) “Just knowing that we’re helping a family out is sufficient,” Donovan Young said. “That alone brings me joy.” 

The need for Safe Families for Children in Greater Cleveland is at or near the national average, said Alana Dennis, director of Safe Families Ohio and the group’s national director of leadership development and culture. So far this year, the local chapter has arranged 12 hosting stints, which is about the norm. The group expects to organize many more during the summer, and hopes that with greater awareness will come more calls from parents. 

Still, in certain ways, Northeast Ohio stands out. Cleveland has one of the highest rates of childhood poverty among major U.S. cities, and use of the foster care system in Ohio is “decently high,” Dennis said. In the 2024-25 school year, Ohio had 14,455 students in foster care.

Beyond that, the situations Safe Families encounters in Northeast Ohio tend to be unusually “complicated,” Dennis said. Here, she said, the root problem is less likely to be something urgent, like a fire, than something “multi-system” in nature, such as housing instability or a short-term mental health issue.

For that reason and more, hosting isn’t all that Safe Families offers. Jessie Manning, director of Safe Families Northeast Ohio, said the group also finds “Family Friends,” volunteers tasked with advising or supporting families in need over the long term. The goal of that program is to evolve a connection into a natural relationship, one without a supervisory element. 

In many cases, the “friend” is also the liaison to a church. While Safe Families is not affiliated with any church or religion, it is “faith informed,” Manning said, in that it was founded in a religious spirit, and a majority of volunteers come to the group through a place of worship. 

“We try to do it more organically,” said Manning, who also attends City Church Heights. “The idea is to grow those relational connections. They’re getting to know a community, and social connections are a huge predictor of a family’s stability.”

That’s another front on which Cleveland stands apart. Given the “complicated” nature of problems here, Dennis said the “Family Friends” program in Northeast Ohio is uncommonly active. At any given time, friends are pulling together supplies or gathering support for a family in need. Money is almost never involved. 

“I’m proud of Northeast Ohio for putting a lot of work into that,” Dennis said. “We’re trying not to just have transactions but to build extended relationships that are able to be steady and stable over time.” 

Organic growth is a guiding principle at Safe Families. Manning rose to her role after she and her husband Jason started out as hosts. (They also continue to serve in that capacity.) Likewise, before she moved to Cleveland to launch the chapter Manning now leads, Dennis volunteered in Chicago.

“Ordinary people are what we need to do this, not just social workers,” Dennis said. “Everything hinges on our volunteers.”

About that, there’s no debate. Since its founding in Chicago in 2003, volunteers with Safe Families nationwide have provided some two million nights of safe housing for more than 85,000 children. Of families assisted in this way, nearly all – 98 percent – have remained intact.  

That was the goal when social worker and psychologist David Anderson, the group’s founder, got the idea for Safe Families. “He just kept seeing situations where there had to be a better way, where families wouldn’t be forced to make choices,” Manning said. 

Hosting is both a challenge and a delight, the Youngs said. The fun part is preparing a child’s favorite food or queueing up her favorite TV show. Less fun is when that child cries for mom in the middle of the night.

“Those are truly difficult moments,” said Denique Young. “However well you’re supported, it’s always a learning curve.” 

Hosts, though, like the families they’re helping, are not alone. Volunteers are screened by Safe Families in accordance with strict state guidelines. Both hosts and “Family Friends,” meanwhile, receive ample training from experts. 

Of course, almost everyone involved with Safe Families already possesses what is probably the most essential trait: compassion. Indeed, that’s what inspired Manning – a mother herself – to join the organization in the first place, and what keeps her going as its local leader. 

“Parenting is hard enough without some additional new challenge,” Manning said. “I know how difficult it can be, and I have a really good support system. We want to be able to offer parents some relief, so they can be a parent for the long haul.”