Price Hill nonprofit working to help children succeed

CINCINNATI (WXIX) - A nonprofit in Price Hill, Santa Maria, is celebrating 125 years of service. While offering several different services, one of the nonprofit’s most impactful is its Every Child Succeeds program.

Jaime Mutter is the director of Every Child Succeeds.

She helps mothers during the most critical time of child development by giving kids a head start.

Every Child Succeeds program offers at-risk mothers and their families support ensuring the best start for their children.

“We focus on moms having a healthy birth, and then you know, those first three years of life are so important,” explains Mutter. “The brain grows 80% during these first three years. So, it’s very important to do a lot of child development, tummy time, different things like that with your child.”

Part of Mutter’s work includes home visits, making sure families have proper shelter and resources to raise their children.

“There’s a housing crisis, and we have a lot of families that are struggling,” said Mutter. “And that really need, you know, help locating housing or even just, you know, how to how to talk to your landlord, or do we need to get legal aid involved, you know, so we were really just a big support.”

The support system Mutter speaks of is one that helped Daljit Kaur and her family.

“Me and my husband don’t know to speak English, so we connect with Santa Maria,” Kaur said. “They gave us free English classes, so that’s good for us.”

Santa Maria first started by working with Italian and Greek immigrants helping them resettle.

Kaur’s youngest son was given preschool classes to help him as he transitions to elementary school.

Mutter started her career in education and has been with Santa Maria for the past 14 years.

She says the most rewarding part of her job is watching families overcome the hurdles that are thrown their way.

“When you see a family succeed, and it just feels really good when they call and they share their stories with you,” says Mutter.

Mutter says the work they do at Santa Maria creates long-lasting change that not only impacts families for generations, but the community as well.

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