Youth Voice About Kinship Care and Maintaining Connections

On Friday, June 21, 2024, OHIO YAB Youth Ambasador Liz Blanchard shared their insights with DCY staff about Kinship Care. Representatives from the Department of Children and Youth included Laurie Valentine, Angie Hughes, Veronica Burroughs, Kip Crist and Joan Vanhull.

The Ohio Department of Children and Youth is preparing their 2025-2029 Child and Family Services Plan. Their #2 goal is to: Ensure every child and teen is placed in a family-like setting and maintains connections they identify as important in their life.

Some of their action steps to accomplish this goal are:

• To increase the use of kinship care.
• To explore processes for licensing relatives as foster family homes.
• To increase and improve trainings focused on kinship care.
• To explore Kinnect to family respite services.
• To improve access to services through a public facing resource hub designed to meet the needs of kinship caregivers, adoptive parents and young people involved in child welfare.

During the call, Liz shared insights and recommendations about:

• How the system should listen to youth about where they do and don't feel safe, when it comes to biological family members.
• The need for direct support for young people in and from foster care, and to include their voices more in training. 
• How, because of the method of kinship care placement, her extended family was told that they didn't qualify for many programs. They experienced multiple barriers, conflicting information about qualifications and were unable to access resources including Medicaid. 

Liz, who is 21 years old, shared that, "Young people in and from foster care have access to a lot more resources than young people in kinship care placements. I didn't have support in the way that I needed. I didn't have anyone guiding me."

Liz asked: "Could there be a similar program to Bridges for young adults who age out of kinship care?  You are on your own, and it feels like being abandoned by a system that doesn't care. We don't qualify for resources in a way we would if we aged out of foster care."

Liz shared also shared heartfelt support and appreciation for the Columbus State Scholar Network. She has recently earned her Associates degree, and will attend Otterbein this fall to pursue a career in journalism. 

When it comes to maintaining connections, during the recent Youth Voice project, participating youth and young adults shared valuable insights regarding: 

2024 Citizenship Ceremony

Link to more photos.

Ohio YAB Youth Ambassador Miatta Joe participated in a citizenship ceremony on Tuesday, June 18, 2024. Those who came to applaud her efforts included:

• OHIO YAB Alumni Facilitator Lisa Dickson
• Franklin County YAB Supporters Deric Cobb and Asia Davis
• Fellow Franklin County YAB member Cynthia Louis-Charles, who successfully attained her citizenship previously, and is currently serving in the United States military.

Group Home Recommendations from Current and Former Foster Youth

On Friday, June 14, 2024, OHIO YAB Youth Ambassadors Celebritty Duncan, Miatta, Joe and Kaden Schrimi shared their insights with Director Wente and other DCY staff regarding Group Homes and Congregate Care. They were supported during the call by foster care alumni Jaye Turner and Lisa Dickson.

The Ohio Department of Children and Youth is preparing their 2025-2029 Child and Family Services Plan. Their #3 goal is to reduce maltreatment and its recurrence in foster care, including reducing maltreatment in residential programs by:

• Identifying residential staff training gaps and opportunities to improve program culture.
• Increasing youth-centered programming in residential settings. 

During the call, individual youth participants shared insights and recommendations about:

• Group Home Common Rooms/Living Areas
• Physical and Emotional Safety of Residents
• Staff Interactions with Youth
• Vetting and Training Staff
• What Makes a Good Work Home Worker or Administrator
• Youth Centered Programming

Here is a link to their presentation.

2024 Leadership and Life Skills Summit

Link to more photos.

The Leadership and Life Skills Summit took place on Tuesday, June 11, 2024 at the Crowne Plaza North. This was Ohio's first statewide life skills summit for current and former foster youth since the pandemic. For the past five years, Ohio foster care youth and alumni have been brainstorming about how to make this event happen once again. Last year’s Self Care Summit was to help lay that groundwork.

The purpose of this event is to inform and empower young people (ages 14-24) who have experienced out of home care. We received RSVPs from Allen, Athens, Champaign, Clark, Clinton, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Franklin, Geauga, Greene, Hamilton, Highland, Lake, Licking, Lorain, Lucas, Mahoning, Miami, Montgomery, Pike, Preble, Putnam, Ross, Vinton, Sandusky, Summit, Trumbull and Warren Counties. 

We are deeply grateful to the Ohio Children’s Alliance for partnering with us on the Aging Out Institute grant, which covered the cost of meals during this event. We also truly appreciate those who have supported the gathering, transport and distribution of Suits for Success. Without Velda Hofacker, Bethany Workman, Sarah Saunders, Jaye Turner, and an amazing team of staff volunteers from the Department of Children and Youth, successful transportation of approximately 950 brand new clothing items would have been impossible. 

This summit embodied “lived experience” because every workshop reflects the insights and input of current and former foster youth. Nine of the 11 workshops were facilitated or co-facilitated by current or former foster youth. There was also a learning track for with CEUs for adults who transported youth. Adults were required to transport youth in order to be eligible. 

Youth Voice Regarding Group Homes and Congregate Care

On Friday, June 7, 2024, OHIO YAB Youth Ambassadors Celebritty Duncan, Miatta, Joe and Kaden Schrimi shared their insights with DCY staff regarding Group Homes and Congregate Care.

The Ohio Department of Children and Youth is preparing their 2025-2029 Child and Family Services Plan. Their #3 goal is to reduce maltreatment and its recurrence in foster care, including reducing maltreatment in residential programs by:

• Identifying residential staff training gaps and opportunities to improve program culture.
• Increasing youth-centered programming in residential settings. 

During the call, individual youth participants shared:

• Feeling resistant to counseling, due to being asked to repeatedly tell their story; "Like replaying the same movie over and over again," rather than being equipped with coping skills for how to handle PTSD and trauma. As a young adult, this individual believes that the best way to process trauma is with creative activities that engage all five senses and alchemize it

• Respecting the manager of one group home due to her being picky about who she hired on as staff, and helping residents negotiate conflict. Expressing concerns that most group home job descriptions are vague, and the desire to have a voice in creating one or more mandated trainings for group home staff.

• Concerns about youth safety in group homes and residential placements. Young adult participants talked about having an insufficient amount of cameras, not having a grievance procedure, and seeing some staff members bully younger youth and youth with disabilities. 

 

Youth Voice Regarding Resources and Reunification

On Sunday, June 2, 2024, OHIO YAB Youth Ambassadors Yonnae Hobbs, Jaylin Hart, Jahmie Woods and Raven Grice shared their insights with DCY staff regarding Resources and Reunification. 

The Ohio Department of Children and Youth is preparing their 2025-2029 Child and Family Services Plan. Their #1 goal is to reduce the need for youth to enter foster care for children and teens at risk of removal. With this addition to the wording, after hearing from youth: "Prevention of foster care when safe and appropriate."

How can this be done safely?  How can youth voice be included?

The call included OHIO YAB Subject Matter Experts:

• Whose biological family just needed more help, and if they had received that help, the young person might not have needed to be in foster care. Unnecessary entry into foster care causes trauma.

• Who experienced prolonged abuse and/or severe neglect and wished they could have gone into or returned to foster care sooner. Experiencing abuse and/or severe neglect without intervention causes trauma. 

• Who found themselves entering foster care, being sent back to an unsafe home, and then re-entering foster care, over and over again. Being bounced back and forth, from ages 3-17 years old, causes trauma. 

During the call, youth shared the importance of:

• Including youth voice and taking youth insights seriously: "I was in and out of foster care eight or nine times. I'm almost 18 now, and they are finally listening to me. They finally put me in permanent custody. But it took them 18 years to listen."
• Keeping eyes on the case, and staying in touch with vulnerable young people
• Viewing casework not as just a job but a role that creates life-changing impacts
• Being authentic: "Real recognizes real."
• Caseworkers having compassion. 

Youth recommendations included:

• Having caseworkers participate in the Cost of Poverty Experience.
• The importance of not just having resources, but having quality resources. One young person shared how this could stop the cycle of foster care in families: "My mother was in foster care, her mother was in foster care, I was in foster care..."
• Not assigning the child and the parent the same worker because this can create a conflict of interest.
• Extending visits and making reunification a longer process.
• Providing counseling post-reunification.