Personal Impact Stories

When Dawn Brodnick, then a therapist working with families in the community, visited the home of her new 12-year old client for the first time, his six-year old brother opened the door.

Dawn asked where his mother was, and the little boy led her through the house to find his mother, who was lying under the table, covered in a blanket, and going through withdrawal from crack cocaine.

Right away, Dawn asked her, “What do you need right now?”

“We have nothing for dinner,” the mother responded.

So Dawn got dinner for the family and helped the mother get into an outpatient treatment program.

A year later, the same mother came back to Beech Brook for help with her older son, and she asked to work with Dawn. The mother remembered and trusted Dawn because she had offered a lifeline when it was desperately needed. Dawn worked with the mother to make changes in her communication style, her approach to discipline and her ability to hold her son accountable for his actions.

Like all who dedicate their lives to social work, Dawn's efforts weren't solely about resolving immediate issues– they were about nurturing the potential for long-term transformation of the entire family. Helping the mother get treatment for her addiction helped the child who was Dawn’s client, because strengthening families strengthens children.

The boy who had once opened the door to a chaotic household was now on a path of hope along with his older brother and mother, and it started with Dawn's steadfast belief in the power of strengthening parents to inspire lasting change in their children's lives.