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.