Virtual Meeting With ODJFS

It was wonderful to be a part of tonight’s call. Todd had literally mentioned today how wonderful it would be to have another Roundtable with the Governor, and we are eager to learn more about what the Ohio Department of Health has in mind. 

Ohio youth leaders are creative and inspiring. Regine participating in a silent protest when Cuyahoga County youth were spending the night in county offices. Raven’s dedicated participation in PFOF meetings. Makayla’s work regarding the SAMHSA grant. Todd’s work to make bank accounts and IDA’s (individual development accounts) a reality for youth in Ashtabula County. La’Shoun being a voice for young people in and from kinship care.

ODJFS mentioned having competing priorities, and Raven was helpful in narrowing down a Top Three to improve outcomes for young people in and from foster care, and those with kinship care experience.

1. Basic preparation for adulthood – as noted in a recent First Friday, Ohio counties need more training to do this effectively
   
   
2. Surviving and thriving in young adulthood – when resources time out for youth at age 21, this is a 911 situation in their lives
   
   
3. Having normal experiences – especially for those entrusted to congregate care (group homes, residential)

1. Basic preparation for adulthood

a.) Can the OCWTP life skills training path that the OHIO YAB has been working on ultimately be made mandatory for foster parents, kinship caregivers AND caseworkers who serve teens?

As Raven mentioned, this would help address the conundrum in which the foster parent thinks it’s the caseworker’s job to prepare youth for adulthood, the caseworker thinks it’s the foster parents (and ditto for public vs. private agencies). 

Makayla made a great point last week that: “Not making this mandatory sends the wrong message to foster youth; it says that foster parents and kinship caregivers must be required to keep you alive (safety trainings are all mandatory) but care nothing for your success or outcomes (life skills trainings not mandatory).”

Roman shared on Sunday evening that: This needs to be implemented systemwide. Roman lived in an independent living group home and this has helped him succeed as a young adult. They taught him things that he would not have known about otherwise: bank account, car ownership, having an apartment. This created a positive impact in his life that continues to this day.

b.) Can ODJFS do a statewide youth survey for a ‘gut check’ when it comes to the effectiveness of independent living preparation in each county/private agency?  

Over the weekend, OHIO YAB representatives talked about: 

- Specifying certain percentage of youth (or striving for all youth) to participate

Asking questions as part of the survey including:

- How prepared were you?
- What specific resources were you informed about?
- Were you able to navigate and access those resources?  Which ones have you reached out to?
- Did you receive your vital records and other information such as medical records when you aged out?
- What was your transition plan, including your housing plan?
- What do you feel that you were missing when you transitioned from foster care to adulthood?
- How willing was your county to help with aftercare if you weren’t enrolled in Bridges?
- Did you feel supported?
- What type of help is missing that you could benefit from?
- If you have a one worker model in your county, how does this help or hurt when it comes to your outcomes?
- Have you been denied resources for youth in your county, and if so, do you know why?is 

The data from this future survey might help to:
- To level-set expectations for counties
- To encourage counties not to eliminate independent living departments when switching to a One Worker model
- To address the challenges that Makayla mentioned tonight re: life skills classes being unavailable during COVID and the structure of life skills classes not always matching with how young people learn
- To remind counties that administering a life skills assessment is only the first step; they then need to move forward to address gaps and build into that young person’s development 

Dorothy Striker mentioned needing to make sure that independent living preparation efforts are documented. 

c.) Can county agencies be invited to compile and share a list of local resources in their area to support older youth in/from foster care?

Makayla mentioned the need for an online platform. Todd shared how it could be a drop-down menu that lets youth identify which Ohio county they live in and what type of resources they need. 

Regine had mentioned including: “What is the recourse for youth who reach out to help to these resources and don’t receive a response?” such as maybe reaching out to Laurie Valentine and her team for technical assistance, but every youth doesn’t know how to do that. 

Having a central list of county-specific resources would be incredibly helpful. It is currently incredibly difficult to identify the county contacts for CCMP, short-term certificates, etc. After we gave out flash drives with resources at the early Thanksgiving this year, Raven emailed a list Cuyahoga-county specific resources that we weren't previously aware of, and definitely want to include in the future. 

Comparing and contrasting the disparity in resources when it comes to foster care vs. kinship would also be very helpful. For example, when it comes to the SOUL permanency option, we were told that without changing state/federal law, youth with a kinship care history won’t be eligible for many supports. And when Raven initiated focus groups of young people in and from kinship care, they shared that any financial support goes directly to their kinship caregiver – and mentioned lack of clothing, bus passes, not having art supplies for school and not knowing about any supports to help them 

2. Surviving and thriving during young adulthood: Extending foster care to 23 and ETV to 26:

The Family First Prevention Act allows states the opportunity to extend the age limit for Chafee to age 23 and Education and Training Vouchers (ETV) to 26. Makayla and Raven have done a deep dive on research regarding this… Raven and I have discussed that foster youth nationally graduate from higher education at an older age than 21.

As Makayla mentioned tonight: When youth “age out” of Chafee/Bridges at age 21, they are disconnected from supports. This undermines their outcomes. Ohio has not opted to extend these supports but over 1,000 youth emancipate from Ohio annually and are in need of the service. Young people continue to struggle while transitioning to adulthood and need help past age 21. States that do not extend foster care to 23 and also do not extend ETV funding to 26 ultimately contribute to the significant barriers foster youth already face. The pandemic further exacerbates these issues.

As Todd mentioned earlier today: The pandemic has shown us the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the system.

3. Having normal experiences:

We recently learned that ODJFS is currently working to implement Normalcy recommendations from the Children Services Transformation Committee. Who is heading this up?  Could we connect with them directly?  We’ve begun gathering feedback from youth throughout the state regarding: “In what ways did you, and did you not, experience normalcy during your time in foster care?"