Our Story

CARE House was established in 1998 as a result of a community task force that wanted to ensure that abused children did not fall through the cracks of the service delivery system.

The task force, led by Brother Raymond Fitz, was implemented in 1992 in response to several high profile cases of child abuse in Montgomery County. It was made up of numerous community organizations all with the goal of serving our county’s children better.

The task force found that victims of child abuse were receiving a fragmented response from the various local agencies dealing with their case. They wanted to find a way to coordinate this response to better serve these children.

Years earlier in Huntsville, Alabama, the children’s advocacy center movement was established by district attorney Bud Kramer. Kramer was seeing children at the end of their case to prosecute their perpetrator and felt that his cases were being compromised by how many times the child had to tell their story. His cases were falling apart and Kramer realized the need for a more coordinated response. He began the first children’s advocacy center and the movement began to spread.

The perfect storm

Back in Dayton, Libby Nicholson was serving as a social worker at Dayton Children’s Hospital. She had learned of the children’s advocacy center model and knew this was something our community needed. However, there were many things that needed to align in order for this to happen.

Nicholson shared her idea with Dayton Children’s leadership and after gaining support from Vice President for Marketing Communications, Vicki Giambrone, they set out to make this dream a reality.

At this time, Montgomery County had set aside $3 million for child protection initiatives. The community was encouraged to apply for that money to pay for initiatives that would meet the recommendations of the task force.

Nicholson and Giambrone applied, sharing the need for a children’s advocacy center. The task force embraced the idea and granted $55,000 to start the program.

The same year, Ronald McDonald House was preparing to move from their old building at 741 Valley Street to their new building down the street. This left the small house across from Dayton Children’s up for sale. The hospital quickly purchased the building and CARE House was officially established.

After a year of planning and building renovations, CARE House saw its first child at the beginning of 1999.

Leading the way in Ohio

CARE House is a founding member of the Ohio network of children’s advocacy centers. When CARE House began, it was one of seven children’s advocacy centers in the state. Today there are 32 children’s advocacy centers in the state of Ohio. This network is a chapter of the National Children’s Alliance which is the accrediting body for children’s advocacy centers nationwide.

Thanks to the leadership of CARE House, two other children’s advocacy centers were established in the Dayton region. The Children’s Advocacy Center of Warren County opened in 2008 and Michael’s House in Greene County opened in 2009.

A new address

In 2014, CARE House moved to a brand new location at 410 Valley Street. This new building was the realization of a dream that began years earlier when the staff and partners at CARE House realized that the 100-year-old building they were using was not meeting their needs to serve children and their families.

Community supporters rallied together during the “Building a Promise” campaign and raised over $2.1 million to build the new CARE House. Architectural firm, LWC Incorporated, designed the new building to not only double the center’s size but to also fit the specific purpose that CARE House serves. Learn more about the new building.

Today, CARE House offers support and hope to children and families in the community serving hundreds of victims of child abuse each year. CARE House serves as a role model for best practices to other children’s advocacy centers nationwide.

Our Story

Our Story

About Us

The perfect storm

Leading the way in Ohio

A new address