Stark Franklin Retreat

 

Youth Insights Regarding CST Juvenile Court-Related Recommendations

The OHIO YAB has a longstanding commitment to Youth Voice in Court, as exemplified by the photos below from the 2010 Judicial Teleconference, in partnership with the Ohio Supreme Court. 

Here is a summary of Ohio foster care youth and alumni input regarding the juvenile court-related recommendations included in the Children Services Transformation report. 

Link to more photos. 

The OHIO YAB established a partnership in 2021 with Ohio Legal Help, a two-year old non-profit organization that was established by the Ohio Access to Justice Foundation, the Ohio Supreme Court, Ohio’s legal aids, and other stakeholders in Ohio’s legal system. 

Ohio Legal Help was planning to create a special section on their website to support the legal needs of current and former foster youth, and invited feedback from current and former foster youth. 

Their new legal information hub for foster youth is now live, and includes: 

• Foster Youth Bill of Rights
• Foster Youth Rights in Court 
• Aging Out of Foster Care
• Child Welfare Investigations
• Changing Your Legal Name
• Getting Copies of Vital Records
• Sealing and Expunging Juvenile Record

Below are the Top 14 Legal Needs that were initially suggested by Ohio foster youth:

1.) Assistance in Accessing Benefits: Such as Medicaid to age 26, Social Security and/or other benefits for which they might be eligible. And being unsure whether they are allowed to apply for food stamps if they are in Bridges or enrolled in college.

2.) Custodial Issues: Former fosters seeking to maintain custody or contact with their children.

3.) Filling Out Forms: Assistance with leases, filing taxes, understanding the FAFSA, applying for Educational Training Vouchers, etc.

4.) Housing Issues: Avoiding eviction, handling landlord-tenant disputes, and how to address unsafe housing conditions (bugs, mice, mold or lead).

5.) Identity Theft: Foster youth are at high risk for identity theft because they frequently change placements, giving an expanding group of adults access to their personal information. 

6.) Legal Citizenship: Ensuring that young people don’t emancipate from foster care and then discover that they are not legal citizens. Young people who are abused, neglected or abandoned by their parents must apply for Special Juvenile Immigrant Status before age 21. 

7.) Name Change: Seeking a legal name change in order for their last name to match that of a siblings, or in order to not reflect an adoptive family if that adoption ended in dissolution.

8.) Protection Orders: Seeking a restraining order and other protections, when trying to escape an abusive relationship during young adulthood.

9.) Records: Desire to access their case file, ICCA form, school records, medical records, adoption records and/or desire to expunge a juvenile record.

10.) Rights Violations: Wanting to ensure that a prior abuser is no longer able to harm others.

11.) Sibling Connections: Assistance in contacting one or more siblings from whom they were separated.

12.) Vital Records: Assistance for young adults who do not have a birth certificate, Social Security card, and/or photo ID.

13.) Wage Issues: Young people who do not receive payment for work they did, and are unsure of how to seek recourse.

14.) Youth Voice in Court: Desire to have a voice in their case plan, transition plan, placement decisions, and/or staff annual reviews, and to be notified about and allowed to attend hearings and communicate with their judge. 

Youth Recommendations regarding Cuyahoga County

The Cuyahoga County Council is the legislative body of Cuyahoga County government, made up of 11 elected representatives from across the County. 

They have recently received updates from Cuyahoga County Children and Family Services regarding their proposed solutions to ongoing issues at the Jane Edna Hunter building. Their proposed changes include: pay raises, issuing a “no eject or reject” RFP, assigning a sheriff’s deputy to the building full-time, and considering reinstating the Metzenbaum Center back into a residential drop-off site. 

OHIO YAB Ambassador Regine Turner has been at the forefront of this issue for years. She participated in the protest on July 7, 2020, as referenced in the article: Demonstrators call for end to housing kids in county office building. Regine and others carried signs that said: 

• Where did you sleep last night???
• A building is not a home

OHIO YAB Ambassador Regine Turner has suggested that those with “lived experience” create their own list of recommendations to share with the Cuyahoga County Council.

Virtual meetings were held this month to further work on a list of recommendations to share with the Cuyahoga County Council, prior to their next meeting: 

Committee of the Whole Meeting
Event date: 9/22/2022-10:00 AM
Address: C. Ellen Connally Council Chambers-2079 East 9th Street, 4th Floor

2022 Foster Youth Rights Video

 

OHIO YAB Youth Ambassador Jonathan Thomas recently shared about the Foster Youth Bill of Rights and why having the right to privacy and personal belongings is so important.

Youth Concerns About County Hotlines and the Cuyahoga County Situation

Extending foster care to age 23 in the state of Ohio

Extending Foster Care to 23 discussion, facilitated by Dorothy Striker of ODJFS, OHIO YAB ambassador Raven Grice and foster care alumna Kim Rhyan

During the recent statewide OHIO YAB meeting, youth recommended that the state of Ohio extend foster care supports to age 23. They felt that extension of supports to age 21 was a good start, and that prolonging supports for two additional years would be a helpful steppingstone to create long-lasting change. 

Challenges that youth with a foster care history currently face when turning 21, and “aging out” eligibility for Chafee supports or the Bridges program include the following:

a.) Concerns about money and budget:

• Rising costs of food and transportation
• Driver’s license, parking fees, parking pass, how to find a care
• Unsure of where to live during dorm breaks

b.) Loss of caseworker support:

• Abandonment issues
• Quote: “It takes time to develop trust with Bridges worker.”
• Quote: “We rely on the system because we cannot rely on our family. Family isn’t always blood.”

c.) Concerns about lack of readiness and preparation: 

• Individual development accounts are only available in some counties
• Quote: “We have a lack of natural supports.”
• Quote: “There is a lot of stuff that no one teaches us.”
• Quote: “We don’t have everything figured out by age 21.”
• Quote: “We don’t have a lot of time to make mistakes and learn from them” in a safe environment that allows youth to learn by experience.

d.) Desiring two years of additional time to receive support with:

• Being able to afford food, clothes, a place to live, furniture, and utilities 
• Emergency funds when needed
• Help applying for things, including maintaining access to medical care
• Helping to find a college or university
• Making a summer plan
• Completing college before losing support
• Finding a job, including finding a job after completing college (this can be scary)
• Disabilities services
• Filing taxes
• Adapting to life as an adult
• Learning how to be a parent
• Reuniting with family and/or developing emotional supports
• Connecting with individual or family counseling services

Youth felt that extending this period of transition would help them to be more successful in young adulthood.  

Youth also talked about inflation, and asked, “Could there be increased funding through Bridges, due to increased cost of living?  Rent and utilities are super expensive, due to the inflation rate of over 9%. Could this lead to increased funding for Bridges?”