Krista Mainess drives home with two toddlers in the backseat of her Mercury Mystique and waits for her fiancée, Ron, to answer the phone.

“Ron,” Krista begins slowly when he picks up. “I can understand if you don’t still want to get married, but I could not let these 15-month-old twin boys go into the system.

So, I’m bringing them home.”

Earlier that day, Krista’s niece, a 20-year-old single mother, awaited a verdict on her case. Krista sat in the courtroom, supporting her.

The judge ultimately chose to revoke her niece’s parental rights and gave two options for her children: give them to a family member, or they go into the system.

For Krista—and later, Ron—there was really only one option. He and Krista raised the boys for about two years.

Ron vividly remembers this as the moment he realized helping people is in his wife’s DNA. That was in 2000, when Ron and Krista’s story of community support began.

“Call Ron and Krista”

For almost two decades, Ron and Krista opened their home to families in need. They even became known for it. Ron said others close to them spread the message: “If you need somewhere to stay for a little while, call Ron and Krista.”

They saw firsthand the disadvantages single mothers in our society face after two of their nieces, single moms themselves, stayed with Ron and Krista on separate occasions. Eventually, they decided it was time to expand their impact.

In 2018, Ron and Krista founded Helping Our Families, a nonprofit supporting single-mother families in Greater Dayton, with the goal of breaking generational poverty. 

By day, Ron is director of the Enterprise Project Management Office, one of the services provided by Information Systems at Kettering Health. The rest of the time, he serves as co-founder and director of operations for Helping Our Families. Krista recently left her job in consulting to support the nonprofit full time as its executive director.

“We want to break generational cycles. That is our mission. That is our focus,” Krista said. “And we want to do that by providing wraparound services to single mothers living in poverty in the Dayton area.”

Today, the nonprofit provides emergency funding, and they offer after-school tutoring for disadvantaged children three days a week in space provided by Kettering Health Dayton.

Educating the community

“Grandview Foundation was instrumental in winning our first grant to outfit space in the physician office building and make it useable for classroom teaching,” said Ron. “The hospital continues to provide the space rent free as part of their commitment to giving back to the community and inspiring future healthcare workers.”

Kettering College sonography, physician assistant, nursing, and respiratory therapy students decorated the space and have come to after-school sessions to share what a career in healthcare could look like, Ron said.

Helping Our Families tutors up to 18 middle and high schoolers from the International School at Residence Park. The students eat dinner, donated by another local nonprofit, then receive tutoring in English and math.

In the summer, students attend a STEM camp and receive opportunities to help them envision what’s possible for their future.

A house of hope

Ron and Krista hope to mold Helping Our Families into a housing program. They’ll eventually purchase a multi-family home where clients and their children could live for up to two years. While there, they’d receive not only basic necessities but also foundational support through resume building, job training, and job searching to help them land on their feet.

“Until then, we are meeting the women exactly where they are,” said Krista. “We are providing immediate services, because obviously no one can even begin to think about asking for training or interview skills or continuing education until their immediate needs are met.”

As a project manager, Ron is comfortable with order and logic. “This is not that,” he said.

“There are opportunities for project management to be applied in things we do, but as we walk through life, moment to moment, it is a matter of prayer and seeking guidance and just continuing to trust.”

Kettering Health employees have supported Helping Our Families through its annual Thanksgiving food drive and Adopt-a-Family Christmas program. In 2023, the nonprofit provided Christmas gifts to 95 children and groceries for Thanksgiving meals to 65 families. Employees have also volunteered as tutors in the after-school program.

“Having an impact on people on a personal level really matters to me,” said Ron. “Being able to have an impact on the community and being an employee of Kettering Health is a double blessing.”