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When children are unnecessarily removed from their homes, experts say the separation puts them at risk of chronic mental and physical ailments. 

With that in mind, four Kentucky libraries are launching programs to keep families together, well resourced and educated, aided with $200,000 in grant money from the national nonprofit . 

Libraries in Jackson, Johnson, Marshall and Spencer counties received around $45,000 each for a variety of programs to help parents meet their children鈥檚 needs. 

, the executive director of the Youth Village initiative , said libraries are a 鈥渓ow stigma, high access point of contact for all communities鈥� and make sense for grassroots outreach. 

鈥淭hey pretty consistently exist in most counties where they can be reached by lots of families, especially those in rural areas, and they鈥檙e (places) people trust to get information, to get access to resources,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 carry the stigma, for example, of going to a child welfare department and asking for resources in a way that might feel very vulnerable.鈥�  

Among other things, the libraries are using the grant month to host trainings on growing food in an apartment setting, teaching parents how to deal with challenging behaviors and how to cook basic recipes, and connecting families to other community resources where they can get car seats and other necessities. 

Libraries are also a more 鈥渘atural鈥� place to host visitations for parents who are working toward reunification, Binkowski said. 

It鈥檚 鈥渙ften not the case鈥� that a child is removed from a home because the parents are outright bad, she said. Most of the time, parents lack the resources to properly feed, clothe or otherwise care for their children, she said. In fact, about 70% of all Child Protective Services allegations are related to neglect and poverty, the Lantern . 

鈥淲e see and parents who are struggling with that as a significant driver of entries into foster care 鈥� not only in Kentucky, but across the country,鈥� Binkowski said. 

Other preventable issues contribute to removal, she said, like a parent not being able to buy a car seat or access safe child care. 

鈥淭hings like that can cause safety issues that have to be resolved for a child to remain safe and stable,鈥� Binkowski said. 

鈥楤efore there鈥檚 a problem, let鈥檚 fix it.鈥� 

Tammy Blackwell, an author and the director of the Marshall County Public Library, said libraries working in this space is just 鈥渓ogical.鈥�

鈥淟ibraries are already reaching families and just doing a lot of good work giving families a place to be and form bonds,鈥� she said. 

Marshall County鈥檚 grant supported a renovation of the to create a more child-friendly space and funded an eight-week program for mothers of young children called Mom鈥檚 Night Out. 

During the Mom鈥檚 Night Out program, which will start the first week in September, mothers who are referred by Court Appointed Special Advocates will gather weekly and have a meal together. During the meal, representatives from the Marshall County Extension Office and the health department will lead discussions about stress management, home upkeep and how to cook recipes with staples handed out at food distribution centers like rice and beans. 

Because this is grant-funded, it鈥檚 not affected by recent program, Blackwell said. Congress recently passed the Big Beautiful Bill Act, which program, among other things. 

The Mom鈥檚 Night Out discussions will be in a 鈥渧ery non-judgmental way, and not in a lecturing kind of way, but as a conversation and getting those families very comfortable in that space, very comfortable with library staff, comfortable with community partners who they may need to call on at some point,鈥� Blackwell explained. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping that they build a bond with each other; other people with similar lived experiences, and to really give them a sense of community and resources in order to help the mothers thrive, so that the children may thrive,鈥� she added. 鈥淚 love that it鈥檚 鈥榖efore, let鈥檚 fix it.鈥欌�� 

The first round of the program will only include mothers 鈥� Blackwell hopes between 12 to 15 鈥� who have children of preschool to early elementary school age. Should it be successful and receive funding for a repeat, she鈥檇 like to expand it to fathers as well. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 been some coverage of how many kids in Kentucky are in either foster or kinship care situations,鈥� Blackwell said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot of kids, and that really impacts their ability to be successful in life. And anything that we can do to strengthen those families and give those kids, then we need to at least try. And I think libraries are in a perfect position to really make a difference.鈥� 

The 2024 Kids Count report, from Kentucky Youth Advocates and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, showed there were in the state from 2021-2023. In that same time period, the number of children leaving foster care and reunited with their families dropped to 32%. Pre-pandemic, from 2016-2018, it was 36%. 

Additionally, in 2024 there were around 55,000 Kentucky children being raised with a relative in a arrangement. 

The Department for Community Based Services came up with the idea to partner with libraries, Binkowski said. Lesa Dennis, the DCBS commissioner, wasn鈥檛 available for an interview but said in a statement that 鈥渂y meeting families where they are, we鈥檙e building pathways to stability, resilience and well-being so no family has to face challenges alone.鈥� 

Removal is 鈥榯raumatizing鈥� 

Binkowski, who previously worked as Assistant General Counsel for the Tennessee Department of Children鈥檚 Services, said that 鈥渁 foster care intervention, even if necessary, is traumatizing to everyone involved.鈥� It can damage bonds between parents and their children and upend daily routine and connections, she said. 

鈥淲e have a substantial body of evidence that tells us that children do best when they are with their families of origin 鈥� when it can be safe,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e know that connections to biological family, knowing where you came from, feeling like you belong 鈥� those are really critical emotional stabilization and safety factors that support children鈥檚 growth and development.鈥� 

Experiencing brokenness in the home, abuse or neglect are Adverse Childhood Experiences, which refers to traumas or stressors in a person鈥檚 life before their 18th birthday. They include, but are not limited to, parental divorce, abuse, parental incarceration, substance use issues in the home and more. The more such experiences a person has, the more likely they are to have poor health, lower education and economic hardships. Childhood trauma also . 

鈥淓nough stressors on a child at early ages without protective capacities to keep them from having negative outcomes can literally take years off of their lives,鈥� Binkowski said. 鈥淪o, while we don鈥檛 want children to experience abuse and neglect 鈥� we also don鈥檛 want them unnecessarily being removed from their home if the issues are not creating those kinds of negative impacts and we can stabilize a family without requiring removal.鈥�

is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: [email protected].

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