Kinship Care Focus Group

The Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board is a statewide organization of young people (aged 14-24) who have experienced foster care which exists to be the knowledgeable statewide voice that influences policies and practices that impact youth who have or will experience out of home care

Spearheaded by Raven Grice, the OHIO YAB recently held a focus group of young people with lived experience in kinship care. 

Participants shared:

- Positive aspects of kinship care placements

- Negative aspects of kinship care placements

- Resources that might have helped their situation

Former foster youth who served in a kinship role for siblings shared their insights, and former fosters who wished they had been able to do likewise shared the barriers that impeded them from pursuing this option. Youth discussed the benefits of the SOUL Family Permanency option, along with the desire to maintain eligibility for state and federal resources. 

The conversation concluded after a detailed discussion regarding: "What will it take to make kinship care a safe and viable resource for youth... including during their transition to adulthood?" 

Two themes that came up repeatedly in conversation were that many of the support services for kinship care providers are only short-term, and that existing financial supports appear to be for kinship care providers, rather than funding to support the youth themselves during their teenage years, and while navigating the transition into young adulthood.