{"id":180327,"date":"2024-06-14T03:38:17","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T08:38:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=180327"},"modified":"2024-06-14T03:39:16","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T08:39:16","slug":"mullins-retiring-from-the-marsh-foundation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2024\/06\/14\/mullins-retiring-from-the-marsh-foundation\/","title":{"rendered":"Marsh’s Mullins retiring later this month"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marsh Foundation has benefited from the expertise, compassion and inspiration of Kim Mullins for the past 29 years. On June 30, she will officially retire from her position as the Marsh Foundation\u2019s Executive Director of Child & Family Services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullins has led the Child & Family Services division at The Marsh Foundation since 2003. Prior to that, she served as a trainer\/consultant for the group home and foster care divisions. She was also a certified instructor of the Crisis Prevention Institute for The Marsh for many years. Her tenure has also included family counseling and specialized assessment and counseling for sexually acting out youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullins\u2019 career in counseling began after a stint in education. She holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in music education and after college was a K-12 music teacher at a private school in Louisville, Kentucky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Kim Mullins<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is where I learned how not to respond to inappropriate behavior,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She and her husband then moved into a group home as family teachers and their lives were changed drastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis experience was invaluable and drove both of us to get further involved in the helping profession,\u201d Mullins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After more than three years in that group home in North Carolina, the couple moved to Mississippi for several years to work at The United Methodist Children\u2019s Home before coming to The Marsh Foundation in 1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to her music education degree, Mullins also holds a master\u2019s degree in education and allied professions, is a licensed professional clinical counselor and has been certified by The Teaching Family Association (TFA) as a family teacher. She credits TFA with teaching her an immense amount about working with difficult children. \u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t begin to describe how much I\u2019ve learned from this association,\u201d she said. \u201cI knew very little about working with youth, but they spent an incredible amount of time teaching and consulting when we moved into that group home.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the key concepts she learned were catch them being good, a consequence is only as good as the motivation, teach kids that it\u2019s okay to make mistakes, it\u2019s how we handle mistakes that counts, be empathetic, help youths feel safe and help them learn how to make decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Her years at The Marsh have been filled with wonderful memories and meaningful accomplishments. Throughout her tenure, the organization achieved multiple certifications from the Department of Job and Family Services, Department of Youth Services, Ohio Dept of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and accreditations from the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities as well as the TFA. In 2023, Mullins received The Steve Plottner Award for Leadership in Child Welfare from the Ohio Children\u2019s Alliance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She notes that any accomplishments she could claim would include the members of the talented and dedicated team she works with. She credits this team as an inspiration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile I am proud of these accomplishments, they are not about me, they are about leaders and workers who partnered together to take bold leaps to achieve courageous goals for children and families,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullins noted that The Marsh, guided by their mission, is now serving more children, youth and families than they ever have before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe true accomplishments happen when a child is reunited with a family, graduates from high school and\/or lives successfully in a community,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mullins said that she will miss her Marsh family when she departs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so grateful that the Lord gave me so many opportunities to serve in the helping profession,\u201d she said. \u201cPraying for the organization has been a practice of mine as well as many others here at Marsh. We see so many disheartening and impossible situations. In those times I remember the words of Christ, \u2018With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is keeping her options open after retirement and hopes that God leads her to another opportunity to serve, perhaps in a different way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am so very grateful for The Marsh Trustees and the leadership here at The Marsh for the encouragement and support I have enjoyed all these years,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A reception honoring Mullins and her years of service will be held in The Marsh cafeteria from 1-3 p.m. Wednesday, June 26. All are welcome to attend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marsh Foundation is a not-for-profit children’s services agency that provides services for youth and families in a variety of settings. Services include residential care, family foster care (ages 0-17), adoption and independent living services. Located in Van Wert, Ohio, the organization is licensed to provide on-campus services for up to 30 children, offers an on-campus school for grades 2-12, and provides a variety of clinical services to campus residents, foster care children and community members throughout western Ohio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VW independent staff\/submitted information The Marsh Foundation has benefited from the expertise, compassion and inspiration of Kim Mullins for the past 29 years. On June 30, she will officially retire from her position as the Marsh Foundation\u2019s Executive Director of Child & Family Services. Mullins has led the Child & Family Services division at The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 11:34:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180327"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180348,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180327\/revisions\/180348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}