Community Highlights: Meet Melissa Adamchik of UpSpring

Today we’d like to introduce you to Melissa Adamchik.

Hi Melissa, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I am the daughter of some pretty amazing parents who taught me to care for others and to work for justice. My mom was the ultimate nurturer, room mother at school, and neighborhood mom; and my dad was a Criminal Investigator for the IRS who also did SWAT and Secret Service detail. I was the second oldest of six girls, so my interest in people and in helping kids came very naturally. I knew what I wanted to do as soon as I took an intro to psychology class my Senior year of high school. Prior to that, I really wanted to be a teacher, which feels a lot like being a helper of children. I got a BA in Psychology and an AA in Sociology, then went right into graduate school and received my MA in Clinical Psychology. I was always drawn towards helping children and ended up specializing in Early Childhood Mental Health (ECMH), then in trauma. I worked as a children’s therapist in community mental health for years, then became an ECMH consultant and trainer for early childhood education settings. I taught educators, parents, and clinicians how to better understand, support, and influence children’s behavior and grew the capacity to treat children under 5 in mental health settings in the early 2000s. I kept consulting and training as an Early Childhood Mental Health Specialist in KY, OH, and IN. By 2015, I was ready to take on something different and was hired as the founding Executive Director of the Tristate Trauma Network (TTN). For eight years, I and some trauma specialists developed and spread trauma-informed care capacity throughout SW Ohio, Northern KY, and SE Indiana. It was beautiful to see so many agencies become more trauma-informed and hundreds of therapists become Certified in Trauma Responsive Care – a designation developed by Mary Vicario of Finding Hope Consulting, LLC, that TTN hosted at least one 6-month training series for annually. After eight years of that work, I was led to go back to more child-focused work and that’s how I landed at UpSpring, an Ohio nonprofit whose mission is to empower children experiencing homelessness in the Greater Cincinnati region. I have been the Executive Director there for a little over three years.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
If anyone says doing community-based mental health and social work is a smooth road, they didn’t work in these fields in the last 28 years like I did. Treating mental health that’s largely from traumatic experiences is hard work. Behavior change is hard work. And systems change is the hardest work I’ve ever done. People resist change because it’s unfamiliar and brains prefer familiarity, even if things might get better. I’ve had a lot of days of grieving for children in terrible circumstances, for broken mental health and child welfare systems, and for generational trauma. On the flip side, I have never lost hope, and it’s the hope and the success stories that have kept me going.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about UpSpring?
UpSpring is a unique nonprofit in the Greater Cincinnati area, as it is the only one that serves the educational needs of students experiencing homelessness. Our mission is to empower these students from preschool to high school by providing opportunities for education and enrichment. UpSpring, known under some prior names since its beginning in 1998, has a 29-year history that started with providing a singular 6-week summer day camp program in Cincinnati, OH. It eventually expanded into an agency providing year-round services, including: three 6-week summer day camp programs serving close to 200 children, after-school enrichment and college and career readiness programming at 14 school and shelter sites during the school year, 15 scholarships for high school seniors planning to attend college or trade school, and a year-round resource hub providing students in six counties in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky with items such as filled backpacks, hygiene and laundry kits, uniform and haircut vouchers, blankets, winter coats and hats, and gym shoes.

What I am most proud of is our outcomes. We know we impact the children’s academics and social-emotional competence in very positive ways. We use validated, well-researched assessment tools and have the support of the University of Cincinnati’s Cognitive Research Lab under the direction of Heidi Kloos, Ph.D. Among children experiencing extreme poverty such as is found with homelessness, the typical rate of students who retain or improve their math and reading skills over the summer is 15-25%. In contrast, 70% of our UpSpring Summer 360 students consistently retain or improve their math and reading skills from start to finish of our 6-week program. Socially and emotionally, 90% of the children participating in our programs are found to be in the Typical or Strength range on the DESSA (Devereux Student Success Assessment) by the end of our school year or summer programming. We also found that 88% of the high school students we served this past school year with our new Pathways to Success College and Career Readiness program were moderately hopeful or higher on the Children’s Hope Scale.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s. We had an above-ground pool in our backyard, and my father had built us a big wooden swingset with monkey bars and a crow’s nest attached. In addition, we had a big, open grassy area for playing Red Rover, whiffle ball, soccer, tag, and all sorts of other invented games. There were so many fun memories in that backyard: pool parties, friends over to play all the time, slumber party campouts in our tent, and endless games. It was a time when kids ran from yard to yard playing and parents looked out for the neighborhood kids, welcomed them, fed them snacks, and took care of cuts, scrapes, and other ailments. It was a carefree time of connection and joy that I will always look back on fondly! It is something I want for all children to be able to experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.upspring.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/upspringcincy/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UpSpringCincinnati
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/29041395