Two of Cincinnati's oldest nonprofits join forces to serve more young people

CINCINNATI (WKRC) – Two of Cincinnati's oldest nonprofit organizations are joining forces to better help young people in a monumental step for the city.

With a combined more than 345 years of service, John Banchy says The Children's Home and St. Aloysius are now one.

“If we came together as one organization, we can serve not only more children, we can have better outcomes and do that more efficiently,” Banchy said.

Banchy is the president and CEO of the agency, now called Best Point Education and Behavioral Health.

Separately, the organizations had similar missions and visions.

Linda Hart, the former executive director of St. Aloysius, and new chief integration and growth officer of Best Point, told Banchy they could do it better together.

“Best Point gives us the opportunity to talk about what we are now, and what we are going to become together: the best point of care for education and behavioral health services,” Hart said.

After the pandemic hit, Hart says it showed how vulnerable children can be and how much they needed health services.

After more than a year of planning, Banchy says the time is now.

“We have never seen the acuity of mental health issues in our community that we are seeing today," said Banchy. "The suicide rate is going through the roof. The children who haven’t been in school, they really need us, and we need to be there for them.”

Best Point can now offer its transformative educational and behavioral health services to more than 18,000 kids in Greater Cincinnati.

“We will have a combined 600 employees. We have 40 separate programs. This is just huge not only for our organization, the combined organization, but also our employees,” Banchy said.

And, the effort combines the strengths of both programs.

“One thing The Children’s Home really offered was early childhood education, and that’s what St. Al’s didn’t offer at this time," said Hart. "This is something now that we can immediately offer tomorrow."

Together, the groups will continue creating more opportunities for kids in some of the city's most vulnerable populations to succeed.

Best Point Education and Behavioral Health is hiring. Find out more information about Best Point’s services here.