Message of Encouragement

These quotes are just as true on Christmas Eve as they are during the Thanksgiving Together events when foster care youth and alumni designed these messages of encouragement for others:

Belated Birthday Zoom

 

Thanksgiving 2021

The Dickson family Thanksgiving dinner, courtesy of my blowtorch-wielding husband:

I recently saw a Facebook post that struggling to ask for help from others is a trauma response. It got me thinking about the many situations that we as foster care youth and alumni have had to face alone…  

It is indeed true that:

• The inner dialogue of “I don’t need anyone, I’ll just do it all myself” is rooted in how we learned to survive life threatening situations.
  
  
• Learning to be independent helped us cope with abuse, neglect, betrayal, and disappointment due to the behavior of others. 
  
  
• To trust is to be vulnerable to disappointment or betrayal, and independence can be a preemptive measure of protection.

So, what’s the answer?  

• Not blind trust. It is wise to be careful of who we trust, and to pay attention to their track record in terms of what it tells us about how much we can rely on them for. 
  
  
• Relationships thrive on communication and boundaries. 
  
  
• Communication can be complicated, and mapping out boundaries is hard work. 

My thoughts are unfinished about this… it’s definitely food for thought.

Youth Ombudsman Advocacy

 The work continues...

 

#YouthRightsMatter

 

Halloween Zoom with the Kiddos

 

Press Conference for Foster Youth Bill of Rights

State Senators Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) and Tina Maharath (D-Canal Winchester) held a press conference on Friday, Oct. 22, 2021 at 10 am to introduce Senate Bill 254, to codify the Foster Youth Bill of Rights in Ohio Revised Code.

Raven, Melinda, Ashley, Deanna and Lisa were honored to participate. Nikki and Cloe assisted in early morning preparation. Participants were quoted in the Hannah Report. 

Foster Care Alumni, Lawmakers Urge Foster Bill of Rights to Be Written into Law
Hannah Report, Oct, 22, 2021.

Former foster youth joined two Democratic senators Friday to advocate for codification of rights for children under state protection, to help them have a voice in setting the direction of their own lives and give them meaningful recourse when facing mistreatment.

Sens. Teresa Fedor (D-Toledo) and Tina Maharath (D-Canal Winchester) introduced SB254 earlier this week; it was also referred to Senate Judiciary Committee this week. Fedor and Maharath -- the latter of whom spent time in foster care -- joined several advocates who experienced foster care themselves to press for action on the measure during a press conference Friday.

Maharath said the proposal would guarantee rights to be free from physical, verbal, emotional and sexual abuse, from discrimination, and to have privacy, belongings and access to communication, among other things.

A codified bill of rights for foster youth was among recommendations of the DeWine administration’s Children Services Transformation Advisory Council. (See The Hannah Report, 10/26/20.)

Fedor, who’s spent much of her legislative career focused on trafficking issues, said foster youth who are frequently moved around and crave attention and stability become targets of traffickers. 

Though they expressed support for the legislation, the former foster youth said the state needs also to create an independent ombudsman’s office for foster youth to ensure their rights are truly preserved.

Lisa Dickson, representing ACTION OHIO and the Ohio Youth Advisory Board, said from the founding of those foster youth organizations she’s observed the following three trends: grievances filed by youth generally sit unaddressed on someone’s desk; youth who call abuse hotlines are not taken seriously; and those who run away from abuse are often sent right back to the place they’re being abused. 

These situations make it “vitally important” that foster youth be informed of their rights, including whom to contact when those rights are violated, and that those complaints generate a meaningful response, she said. 

Melinda Juergens, now 30, described the abuse she experienced in her teen years at her fourth foster placement -- being made to stand with her arms outstretched for hours at a time, severe restrictions on food, orders not to sit down unless asleep, bathing or in the bathroom, and having to drink dish soap after being reported for cursing at school. “For a long time, I couldn’t even smell lemon dish soap without getting queasy,” she said. 

“It amounts to torture, and if I would have had that youth ombudsman office back then, my adoptive parents could have empowered me to go through and use my rights to report these foster parents with the youth ombudsman office, and I could have prevented [placement of] the seven other children they fostered after me,” she said. 

“I was in the same private foster care agency that Marcus Fiesel was in,” Juergens said, referencing the 2006 case of a three-year-old boy murdered by his foster mother. 

Fedor said after their remarks she’d seek an amendment to create an independent ombudsman office. 

Fedor said she would like to see the bill of rights get full hearings in both chambers as standalone legislation rather than attaching it to HB4 (Plummer-Manchester), other child welfare legislation that’s passed the House and is pending in Senate Judiciary, because she wants her colleagues to hear the youth voices behind the proposal.

Legacy of Difference-Making

While preparing for a presentation this morning, I am reminded of the ongoing legacy of Ohio foster care youth and alumni positively impacting federal and state legislation, supported by our beloved allies.

#LetsKeepPushingForwardTogether

Youth Ombudsman Coalition

The Youth Ombudsman Coalition was initiated by the Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board, which is a statewide organization of young people (aged 14-24) who have experienced foster care that exists to be the knowledgeable statewide voice that influences policies and practices that impact youth who have or will experience out of home care.

Members of this growing coalition include: ACTION Ohio, Adoption Network Cleveland, Athens CASA/GAL Program, Better Together Toledo, the Children’s Defense Fund, Columbus State Scholar Network, Community of Hope, Disability Rights Ohio, El’lesun, the Fostering Achievement Network, iFoster Inc, Junior League of Columbus, the Miresa Arts Foundation, the National Center for Housing & Child Welfare, the Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, the Ohana Project and Think of Us.

Learn more at: https://fosteractionohio.org/advocacy-toolkit/    

Second Zoom Meeting with Representative Jarrells

 

The OHIO YAB and ACTION Ohio held a Zoom meeting with Representative Jarrells on Friday, Oct. 8, 2021.

We deeply appreciated Representative Jarrells' offer to circle back with Representative Manchester this week regarding attached strike-through document that we recently sent her regarding HB 4, which is currently being reviewed by the Senate Judicial Committee, and will likely go next to the Senate Finance Committee.

The wording of our message to Representative Manchester was as follows:

After reviewing with participants of the Youth Ombudsman Coalition and the OHIO YAB, we wanted to make additional suggestions to the amendment drafted by LSC. We hope that the attached redlined version of the amendment helps to clarify our positions and moves us towards an amendment that can be supported by the OHIO YAB and the coalition that has been working towards a truly independent and effective ombudsman’s office.

Our redlined version of the amendment does two important  things:

• Clearly makes the youth ombudsman a separate appointed role.  This is the primary request and this change would accomplish the main intent.
  
  
• Clarifies that the OHIO YAB will have input in the selection of the Youth Ombudsman. This is also a primary request and goes hand-in-hand with the first request.

The following are suggestions that build off of some of the changes included in the LSC prepared amendment. These amendments continue to build on the intent of our original proposal to Representative Manchester's office.

• Change the name from Children Services to "Youth and Family" with the "Family Ombudsman" as adult-serving and the "Youth Ombudsman" as youth-serving. 
  
  
• Clarify that the two ombudsmen will be housed in the same office at JFS, but will not report to the Director of JFS and will not be subject to budget reductions
  
  
• Add the OHIO YAB to the list of people who will receive and evaluate the annual report.
  
  
• Create an appropriation line item and clarify that the Youth Ombudsman shall receive no less than 50% of the budget.

This morning's Zoom with Representative Dontavius L. Jarrells was AWESOME. I think we've found our legislative champion to establish a Youth Ombudsman Office that will safeguard and protect Ohio youth. We have serious faces in the photo below because child and teen safety is no joke. But my heart was deeply encouraged by today's call.

Storytime Love with Edward, Frannie, William and Virginia Mae

 

Click to enlarge

 

#StigmaBusters

Something I didn't expect after the car accident was to experience short-term PTSD. Apparently, it's not uncommon, especially for individuals with a history of trauma and abuse. 

Fortunately, I have WAY better coping mechanisms than I did when I was younger. I've been able to stay calm on the outside and tell myself: "This is literally just cortisol. I am not in danger." 

I've been drinking water, breathing deeply, and using grounding exercises. Wish younger me had known how to do this stuff, which is why I'm sharing, in case it might be of help to others.

Imprint article about Youth Ombuds Office ~ with quotes from Jaye and Deanna

 

In Quest to Meet Needs of Foster Youth, More States Create Independent Ombuds Offices
Conn, Megan. The Imprint: Youth and Family News, 7/26/21. 

Over two years working at foster care agencies in Columbus, Ohio, it became clear to Jaye Turner just how alone the young people she cared for often were. And when they raised a problem, the professionals in their lives were often dismissive, discouraging them from filing a formal grievance or reporting their treatment — and saying no one would believe them anyway.

As a result, said Turner — a former foster youth herself  — “if something bad happens, that child is not gonna say anything, because they think, ‘I don’t trust that you’ll do what you’re supposed to do.’”

Feeling unsupported, unheard or isolated is distressingly common for foster youth, and all too often there is no reliable person to help with questions or concerns: Why can’t I stay at my school when I move to a new foster home? Do I have to keep taking medication that makes me feel weird? How can I be transferred out of a group home where I’m being mistreated? 

Jaye Turner, a former foster youth, has worked for foster care agencies in Columbus, Ohio.

Caseworkers are often too overloaded to listen or too inexperienced to problem-solve, and officials impossible to reach. 

To get their basic needs met, foster youth and their advocates across the country are pushing for the creation of offices with the sole purpose of listening to and addressing their needs — from securing visitation with their birth parents and siblings to figuring out how to pay for college.

Currently, just 22 states have an independent statewide office to respond to concerns from those living in foster care or serving such children. These offices also identify systemic problems, produce regular, publicly available reports on complaints and recommend solutions, such as increased oversight of residential facilities, or better education about a state’s foster care bill of rights. 

Some states, including Colorado and California, have had such offices for a decade or two. Others have created these watchdog roles only recently. Ohio, West Virginia and Washington, D.C., are currently defining how their new offices will operate. And in Vermont, legislators are considering a bill that would create an office to advocate for youth in foster care.

This year, New York lawmakers considered a bill to create an independent state office to address concerns about foster care and report on larger trends, but the measure failed to advance.

In Ohio, where Turner grew up, youth advocates spent four years fighting to create an office to listen to and advocate for young people in need of safe homes. Last year, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) approved $1 million for the initiative, and the state Legislature is now deciding how it will operate. 

For many Ohio advocates, the desperate need to designate someone for foster youth to call when they are in need became all too apparent in April, when Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old Black teen, was shot and killed by a white Columbus police officer outside her foster home after an altercation with several older teens who were former residents of the home.

 Ma’Khia Bryant, 16, was a foster youth who was killed by police in April.

According to relatives and news accounts, the circumstances surrounding the lives of Ma’Khia and her siblings cried out for better oversight well before she was gunned down. The children’s grandmother had begged child welfare officials to give her more time to find housing so she could keep the family together, but they were removed nonetheless, two sisters ending up in a chaotic foster home where police were frequently called.

Four days after Ma’Khia’s April 30 funeral, former foster youth Deanna Jones testified in the Ohio statehouse that help from a foster care expert could have saved the girl’s life. Jones said in her own case, without a rescue from a sympathetic case worker, her trajectory might have been far worse.

Lawmakers are pushing for an investigation into Ma'Khia Bryant's life in foster care leading up to the police shooting that killed her.

“My life could have ended if I had not had an advocate,” she told lawmakers. “There were times when my rights and concerns were being violated, but I had someone to go to bat for me. And we don’t have that now.”

Such statewide offices are often known as a foster care ombudsman or ombudsperson — derived from the Swedish word for “representative” — or sometimes as a child advocate. Ombuds offices are designed, fundamentally, to provide accountability in the child welfare system — typically tight-lipped, opaque bureaucracies that too often fail to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the vulnerable children and families they are charged with protecting.

When problems arise, “you’ve got to have some entity that’s responsible for knowing — and then responding when there’s a violation or a potential violation,” said Jennifer Rodriguez, a former foster youth and executive director of the San Francisco-based Youth Law Center. 

Foster care ombuds offices typically take calls from children, foster parents and biological relatives, and, in some states, from any member of the public. Most have hotlines that receive calls during business hours; in Washington state, people are directed to fill out an online form. New Hampshire is among the few state offices that receive walk-ins. 

The role and scope of the foster care ombuds varies across states, including the branch of government where it is located and what information it can access. 

Mary Christine Reed, a lawyer who directs the nonprofit legal advocacy group Texas Foster Youth Justice Project, said her state’s office does regular and effective outreach to young people, spreading the word through summer conferences as well as life skills classes that all 16- and 17-year-old foster youth must take. 

Recently, she got a call from a north Texas teen whose foster parents were pushing him to attend church and read the Bible against his wishes. Frustrated and uncomfortable in the only home available to him, the boy wanted someone to help him negotiate the situation.

Reed said she referred him to the ombudsperson, who listened to his concerns and arranged a meeting with the state commissioner of children’s services, the general counsel and other leaders of the state child welfare agency. He was inspired by sitting around a table with the people who decided where to send kids like him who needed a safe home, and ultimately moved to an independent living program.  

“Our client was left feeling that he had made a difference,” Reed said, “and that there could be some change for other youth.”

To understand the key attributes of an effective ombuds office, The Imprint spoke with three current or former directors of state ombuds offices as well as six leaders of state and national organizations that serve foster youth. 

All agreed on four critical elements for an independent watchdog:

• Independence from the state child welfare agency
• Tracking and reporting systemic issues
• Access to case information and data
• Direct outreach to youth

In 18 states, the ombuds offices are located outside of the state child welfare agency, often within the offices of a governor or inspector general, according to research by Moira O’Neill, director of the New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate. While most of those offices focus specifically on children’s issues, five oversee all government agencies. 

Rochelle Trochtenberg, California’s former Foster Care Ombudsperson.

In three states — California, Texas and Utah — the offices operate autonomously, but within the state child welfare agency. That model is not ideal, said California’s former ombudsperson Rochelle Trochtenberg. Before her recent departure after a five-year tenure, Trochtenberg — a rare ombuds who is herself a former foster youth — had advocated to move her office outside of the state Department of Social Services. The department is still seeking her replacement.

Experts interviewed for this article all agreed these watchdog agencies must go beyond providing assistance in individual cases and must produce regular reports on broader trends, along with recommended changes. 

Such reports can serve as a guide for needed laws and policies, they said, but their recommendations are not binding, and their impact hinges on the ombuds office’s ability to persuade agency leaders and state lawmakers to take action. Absent pressure placed on policymakers through media exposure, sometimes the reports go unheeded.

Colorado’s Child Protection Ombudsman Stephanie Villafuerte

In Colorado in 2017, for example, the state shut down a foster care facility where residents had for years reported abuse by staff. In 2019, the ombudsman’s office issued a report which found that child safety concerns were routinely ignored by “an ill-defined system that fails to ensure the safety and well-being of youth inside these facilities.” It also recommended specific changes to policy and practice to the Colorado Department of Human Services.

But two years later, the state ombudsman, Stephanie Villafuerte, said the agency has not implemented her recommendations satisfactorily — and that it only began the conversation about how to address them after allegations against two other youth residential facilities were highlighted by media reports this year.

“It took ongoing problems in youth facilities before acting on them,” Villafuerte said. “We’re clear on what the problem is, and frankly, we’ve already identified the solutions.” 

Effective ombuds offices also need easy access to internal data collected by state and local child welfare agencies, the directors and advocates said. But according to O’Neill’s research, watchdog agencies in just 12 of 22 states have subpoena power — the ability to petition a court to order an agency to release information. 

The ability to compel an agency to turn over information can be a powerful oversight tool, Trochtenberg said — although in practice, ombudspeople often end up relying on the power of persuasion.

“If I had to go through the process of getting a subpoena issued and waiting for these records to come back to me, that delays the process of justice, and it also delays our ability to offer more timely and sound policy recommendations,” Trochtenberg said. “I tried to get around that by further clarifying what I have the right to access and how and when.”

Finally, the services of many foster care ombuds offices reflect the preferences of adults, rather than youth, both advocates and agency directors said. Most cannot be reached on evenings and weekends, and are accessible only by phone call, email or an online form. Several advocates suggested youth would prefer to communicate by text or live chat.

“We do hear from youth, but we’re probably barely scratching the surface right now,” said Villafuerte in Colorado. Her office recently added a “Services for Youth” button on its home page, which leads to a new webpage that explains the ways in which it can assist them. 

Still, she said more direct outreach is needed to reach youth where they are at and advise them how her office can help.

“A lot of our youth in care don't have access to laptops and computers,” Villafuerte said, “and they don't know what an ombudsman is because that word is just foreign to most kids, and really to most adults.”

Ombuds' ability to improve child welfare systems hinges on their success in earning the trust of the youth they aim to serve, said Christine James-Brown, president of the Child Welfare League of America.

“These offices have to work in the right way because they can't be another source of disappointment for people,” James-Brown said. “If we’re going to promote something like this, they can’t be just another window dressing.”

OHIO YAB Presentation for Governor DeWine

 Governor DeWine said, of the OHIO YAB's presentation today: 

1.) That the youth were articulate and professional

2.) That the points they made and their stories were compelling

3.) That he wants to take some time to evaluate and talk with his team re: separating out Youth Ombuds Office from the Children Services one

4.) That: "We don't write the laws, but we can weigh in"

5.) That we should seek to get the General Assembly to understand our point of view

If you know or if you are child or teen who is experiencing abuse...

If you know or if you are child or teen who is experiencing abuse...

1. When calling child abuse hotlines, multiple calls from multiple people tend to be better heard

2. If there is physical evidence of the abuse, consider showing it to a trusted teacher because they are mandated reporters

3. If the physical abuse is severe or if the abuse is sexual and there is physical evidence of it, go to the ER, because they are also mandated reporters

4. Find out where your local Safe Place is... Here's a link to to find the local Safe Place in your area: https://www.nationalsafeplace.org/find-a-safe-place

5.) For example, in Columbus, a child or teen can go to their local Kroger or library branch, share that they feel unsafe, and transportation will be arranged to get them to Huckleberry House. 

Huck House is a wonderful resource. It comes highly rated by teens themselves. We've visited in personally, had youth tour and spoken with residents to ask about their experiences.

Youth shared that it was a place of comfort, safety, fun, caring and respect, that they can rely on for a meal, a place to sleep, caring adults and transportation to their school during the time when they stay there.  

 

Excellent Op Ed about the need for a Youth Ombudsman Office

 Opinion: Foster children need a voice and to be heard: Dylan McIntosh

Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 13, 2021.

Dylan McIntosh lived in 23 different homes during the course of his time in foster care. That's why he is pushing to create an ombudsman office to be a voice for children in foster care. (Photo Courtesy of Dylan McIntosh)

Guest columnist Dylan McIntosh spent 10 years in foster care. He “aged out” of the system at 18 years old. Back in January 2020, prior to the pandemic, Dylan shared his foster care experience with Gov. Mike DeWine’s Children’s Services Transformation Advisory Council.

Think back to when you were 13 years old. Now, think about a time when someone did you wrong and how you handled it. Did you have a trusted adult’s attention to whom you could bring your problem? 

If you did, I bet they were able to listen and help you get through it.

Now, imagine that you didn’t live with your family; that you had to change where you lived, with whom you lived and which school you attended -- often.

Also, take away the trusted adult who could help you solve your problems and process your concerns when something went awry.

That is reality in the life of a child in foster care – ever-changing and inconsistent.

I know that reality all too well. In the course of my time in foster care, I lived in 23 different homes. I’ve been able to see the faults and cracks in the well-intentioned system that is meant to help, but oftentimes is under-resourced and under-staffed.

Unfortunately, due to issues with the child welfare system -- ranging from overwhelmed caseworkers to extended wait times on crisis lines and a lack of funding, -- children in foster care who have serious problems often have nowhere to turn, which can lead to tragic results.

We owe more to the most vulnerable.

There is a powerful solution that could help kids in foster care, if done properly. The solution is a Youth Ombudsman Office, serving youth throughout the entire the state of Ohio. It would be an independent office tasked with listening to the voices of vulnerable children who, through no fault of their own, find themselves often outside of their biological family.

What would a Youth Ombudsman’s Office do? It would serve youth experiencing abuse and neglect in a variety of settings (foster care, kinship care, respite care and institutional/residential care).

To avoid a conflict of interest, it should be independent from the Department of Job and Family Services. It needs to be youth-specific and separate from agencies serving adult caregivers. It should also possess meaningful oversight of child welfare agencies, in order to assure that issues are solved, rather than lost in the red tape.

Most importantly, it should be designed by those who have experienced the foster care system and it should be created to be easily accessible. It is incredibly important to give youth in foster care a voice and a space to be heard that is separate from the way that foster parents submit their own concerns.

Advocates for foster youth believe there should be “nothing about us, without us” in the creation of solutions impacting children in care. A Youth Ombudsman Office should be no different.

As someone who did not have the benefit of an advocate when I was bounced around in the foster care system, I implore the General Assembly to pass and Gov. Mike DeWine to sign House Bill 110 to create and fully fund a Youth Ombudsman Office to serve the foster youth in our state so that they may thrive and live better than those who came before them.

It may be too late for those of us who have already aged out of foster care, but it’s not too late for those in care now and those who may be in the future.

#TrueStory

 

A common experience that many of us experience as former foster youth is feeling alone.

We often feel alone at the very moments in our lives when we most need other people to help us. When our safety is threatened. When we are transitioning from one living situation to another. When an overwhelming situation comes up and we aren't sure how to handle it. 

Thankfully, we as foster care alumni can network with one another and with our trusted allies. Tears literally came to my eyes this week after an encouraging update that reminded me that, in our efforts, we are NOT alone. #Grateful

 

#YouthOmbudsOffice

Reasons why we will continue to advocate for a Youth Ombudsman Office in the state of Ohio...