Red Oak Behavioral Health

Learn more about the Red Oak approach to care

Our History

Red Oak has served as a mental health service provider for the Greater Akron community for more than 6 years. What began as a small faith-based counseling practice in 1963 (then known as Pastoral Counseling Service of Summit County) transformed dramatically in 1998, when founding CEO Rev. Byron Arledge was asked to pilot a program that would place qualified mental health professionals in select Akron Public Schools.

The school-based therapy program launched as a pilot with just one licensed therapist at Perkins Middle School. The following year, Red Oak placed seven licensed mental health professionals at other APS middle schools. By 2007, Red Oak was serving all grade levels in Akron Public, and began to expand its work to school districts across Summit County. Today the agency serves nearly 20 school districts and networks with embedded mental health services across 100 buildings in four counties.

In 2013, the outpatient Barbara M. Vassel Comprehensive Care Center opened to serve children and adults in need of mental health care outside of the school setting. The opening of the Barbara M. Vassel Comprehensive Care Center not only provided an opportunity for the agency to serve parents and family members of its school-based clients, but also opened the door for the provision of care and community referrals for clients of all ages. Those services were augmented to include services for older adults when they moved to our current office location at 611 W. Market Street in July of 2016. In 2025 we completed a renovation project to create an administrative and outpatient office space that is welcoming and trauma-informed, including a KultureCity sensory room, gross motor space, and teaching kitchen.

In 2018 Red Oak launched its first early childhood mental health services, serving children ages 3-5 within a preschool setting using a blend of screening, intervention and treatment services. In 2024 we began offering expanded early childhood services in all Akron Public Schools Early Learning Classrooms.

Our screening and intervention services were augmented further in 2019 with the addition of mentoring and prevention programs, in partnership with the iC.A.R.E. Mentoring® program, and launch of a model behavioral health continuum of care program with Barberton City Schools that included training/education, screening, prevention and intervention, in addition to the already embedded treatment services. This program has continued to grow, and we now partner with many school districts to place prevention staff in their schools, and offer out-of-school time SEL classes with the Akron Area YMCA.