Grateful for 19 years of marriage

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I am deeply grateful for 19 years of marriage to Nathan Dickson. He is my songbird and my oasis. He challenges, exasperates and inspires me on a daily basis. I love his brilliant brain, hilarious wit, and creative talents.

Celebrating the journey: May - June 2019

A wise sister of mine, Angie Cross, taught me that we need to take time to celebrate milestones during the course of our ongoing advocacy work. So far, May and June have been incredibly busy months...

 1.) We met with the new Director of Child Welfare Transformation to talk about the need for a statewide foster care ombudsman, and to include youth voice in what that office should look like...

 2.) We are continuing to share the need for a statewide medical ombudsman (to address overmedication in foster care), and following up on youth reports of abuse in a specific residential facility.

 3.) We are continuing to work on national efforts to improve housing outcomes after foster care, including the Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Act, The Higher Education Access and Success for Homeless and Foster Youth Act of 2019, and The Fostering Success in Higher Education Act

 4.) We had the privilege of being a part of the 2019 Ohio Family Care Association Conference, and are deeply grateful to Dot Erickson Anderson, Denise St Clair and others for caring about youth voice and for helping identify host homes for young adults in the Bridges program.

 5.) We are deeply grateful for the ongoing commitment of CMHA to bring Scholar House 3 from vision to reality. (groundbreaking is set for August 2020, with 30 residents -- hooray!!)

I wanted to take a moment to send some love and appreciation to our foster care youth, alumni and allies for their diligence and dedication.

We can - we are - we will make things better.

Thank you for being a part of this ongoing journey.