Impact 100 Grant Paves Way for CityLink Center to Keep More Mothers and Children Together

“Behind every child at risk, there is a mother in crisis who needs our support,” says EMA’s Program Director. 

In December 2024, Tara Otis of Price Hill felt that her life as a single mother was out of control.  

A white mother of four Black sons ages 9-15, Tara felt she couldn’t relate to, connect with or adequately discipline her children. She rarely communicated with their father. Owner of her own cleaning business, she struggled financially.  

Fast forward to the spring of 2025. Tara says her December 2024-to-February 2025 involvement with the Every Mother’s Advocate (EMA) program at CityLink Center turned around her life and her children’s lives for the better. Much better.   

“There is always light at the end of the tunnel,” says a vivacious Tara, 40. “EMA was my light at the end of the tunnel.” 

Across the country, about 76% of family separations are due to preventable causes, including unemployment, mental health needs, access to child care, affordable housing and transportation. At EMA’s founding location in southern Florida, the program has seen 95% of at-risk families stay together.  

Cincinnati’s fledgling EMA program – who received one of Impact 100’s four $100,000 grants in 2024 – provides holistic support to struggling mothers, particularly those who are attempting to maintain or regain custody of their children through Hamilton County Jobs & Family Services (JFS).

EMA’s three-pronged strategy includes: 

  • Training women volunteers as EMA advocates and pairing them one-on-one with JFS or self-referred mothers 
  • A 10-week course for mothers on parenting, stress management, healthy relationships, financial literacy, and individual, trauma-informed coaching with an EMA advocate 
  • Access to community resources through an EMA coordinator, including financial/housing assistance, transportation, mental health support, legal aid, childcare, peer groups and job training in numerous fields – either at CityLink Center or via other community resources. 

“You got your babies back” 

“Our ultimate goal is to preserve the family for the long-term,” says Kimberly Johnson-Wharton, EMA’s Cincinnati coordinator.

“We look at short-term solutions to help the moms maintain custody or reunite with their kids, and we’re a preventive program ensuring that kids can come back into the home or stay in the home while mom is going through training. 

“We’re not doing this just to close the case with JFS, either,” she adds. “It’s to say to these women, ‘You did this hard work, and you got your babies back.’ The significance of a mom wanting to stay involved in the program, even if their JFS case is closed, puts power and control back in their hands to say, ‘This is my decision. This is my choice. I see the impact EMA has made on me and my family. I never thought this would happen in my life, but here I am.’”  

Two common challenges — homelessness and under/unemployment — emerge for many women at risk of family separation, Johnson-Wharton says.   

“The special mom to me is one who says, ‘I want to help myself,’” she emphasizes. “When that mom comes to us on her own, I explain how special her decision is, because no one had to push her to do it.”  

A mentor, life skills and opportunities

Cincinnati is the only Ohio city with an EMA presence, but CityLink’s Program Director Emilie Boyes notes that they are part of a national EMA network. In its first year, EMA at CityLink has trained 20 advocates; 48 mothers have joined the program.   

Thanks to Impact 100 funding, Boyes is actively recruiting an additional full-time EMA coordinator for 2025. “That doubles our capacity to serve mothers each year,” she says. “With this funding, we aim to empower at-risk moms to achieve stability, preventing approximately 150 children from being separated from their mothers and entering the foster care system.”  

Boyes continues, “We know that there are hundreds of mothers like Tara in our city and hundreds of kids who are at risk of separation from their mothers in the foster care system. The EMA advocate is what really launches the success of the mothers to be seen and supported, to have an external person who walks beside them.” 

“It was what I needed to learn” 

Tara says that the valuable knowledge from EMA classes and her advocate’s unwavering support “helped me to learn to communicate our family’s principles to my kids and to live up to them. Every lesson linked to and tied into what was really going on in my life at the time, and it provided exactly what I needed to learn: You’re not a bad mom if you set boundaries and stick to them.  

“Together, we’re focusing on keeping our mental health strong, respecting one another and doing what we have to do.” She adds, “And now I know I can be a good parent and tell them ‘no’ and set boundaries. The EMA experience has created a healthier relationship with my boys.” 

Tara’s success story reinforces the EMA team’s commitment to expand the program. 

“The mothers aren’t the problem,” Boyes says with conviction. “They’re the solution if they get enough support.”