May 2025 Visit with the Kiddos

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Proud of:

• Edward for coming up with excellent alliteration (Going on a Picnic, Going to the Toy Store, etc.) and for helping with all the rules to different games.
• Fran for doing an entire dance show for us, complete with awesome costumes.
• William for being a good listener, and coming up with so many rhymes.
• Ginnie for the great job she did swimming and cutting out the craft at the library.

Additional highlights:

• Edward did a great job with his drone.
• Fran made me a beautiful bracelet. 
• Williams was very respectful with his Nerf guns.
• Ginnie did two amazing rock n roll dances. 
• 
  

Library Funding Matters

The world needs more safe places, and we as advocates can become the safe people we lacked in our younger lives. We can create resources that never existed when we were younger. We can surround ourselves with fellow difference-makers and, together, accomplish great things. 

In my adult life, I serve in two roles. As a foster care alumni advocate and as a librarian. There have been many times in my life when books provided me with a lifeline when I needed it. 

This is one of them:

As a teen, in between foster care placements, I spent two weeks at an emergency shelter. The first night I spent there, eight girls jumped me and beat me up. It wasn’t anything personal; they were hurting and the pain and anger they were each experiencing made them look for a temporary scapegoat. 

At that particular time and at that emergency shelter location, staff were neither highly paid nor highly trained. It was a minimum wage job, and I’m not sure if they received any trauma or de-escalation training at all. The staff member on duty didn’t intervene in the moment. But later, he let me know that I had two sleeping options: in the room with other residents, or I could lock myself in “the book room.”

So I did. For two weeks, I locked myself in the book room every day while I was there. I read every book on the shelves - and as I read them, my mind traveled far away and far beyond that emergency shelter. I lost myself in books, until I was moved to the next placement.

Words have power. Books have power. They can take you to a better place when you are in a negative one. When a situation makes you feel powerless, and you are not sure how long it will last - books transport you. 

But my love for libraries goes far beyond just that. Because public libraries provide so much more than books. They are a “third place” for people to gather and build community. 

Library services include school help centers, after school snack/summer lunch, Kindergarten readiness classes, reading buddies to support students in Grades K-3, and resource pathfinders for teens and young adults. 

Libraries also serve as a Safe Place for youth in crisis. I have the utmost respect and appreciation for Huckleberry House (and for Star House as well).

Teens and young adults need and deserve safe spaces and safe places, as they navigate challenges and complications, while seeking to lay the groundwork to build successful futures. 

Building Bridges With Potential Future Allies

I never endorse a political candidate, and always strive to remain bipartisan. But I have seen some recent posts saying very negative things about United States Senator Jon Husted, and I wanted to speak up on a personal level. 

Ohio has two freshman U.S. Senators right now, and we need to give both of them a chance. It takes time to adjust to Washington D.C., and this is a particularly complicated year. 

My hope is that we as foster care youth, alumni and ally advocates will be able to work with both Ohio Senators on policy that will benefit the nation. This is what we have done in the past; partnering with both Senator Sherrod Brown and Senator Rob Portman's offices on a regular basis during our annual trips to DC between 2013-2020. 

Some things you might not know about former Lt. Governor Jon Husted:

1.) He started his life in a foster home before being adopted.

2.) He worked tirelessly on the Governor's Office of Workforce Transformation. 

3.) He and his wife deeply care about foster youth. This has been demonstrated in many ways, including their support of FosterHub's work to create transitional housing and life skills preparation for foster youth in Appalachian Ohio. 

4.) In 2024, over 3,800 families used Ohio's Adoption and Foster Care portal, launched by Lt. Governor Jon Husted's InnovateOhio. This was double the number of annual inquiries prior to the creation of this fully online resource.

We don't make allies by attacking them. I care and understand the urgency when it comes to reaching our political officials - as a former foster youth and an advocate, I experience that sense of urgency as well. 

5.) Below is a photo of U.S. Senator Jon Husted during a 2023 Foster Care Month Event, listening to one of our youth leaders share her insights. Look at the smile on his face as he is listening to her...

2025: Gearing Up

In 2025, my hope is that each of us continue to move forward to make a positive difference, regardless of obstacles:

^ I've posted the beginning of this quote before - but I like the end part as well.

2025: Thinking Ahead

As we move forward as foster care youth and alumni advocates into this uncertain New Year, there are both challenges and opportunities ahead.

There will be times when it’s incredibly important to take a deep breath, focus on what we want to accomplish, and then keep moving forward, regardless of the wind on our faces or obstacles in our path.

I hope we take time to remember that we are not alone, nor powerless. We are strong. We are resilient (as children and teens, we didn’t have the choice NOT to be). We are visionary and determined. We see how things could be made better so clearly that the outcome is almost physically tangible in our minds and hearts.

There is warmth in our hearts in the midst of winter. We have weathered storms and stayed rooted to our goals. 2025 is a year that will require hope and determination. And we have both.

FosterHub Groundbreaking of Future Transitional Housing and Training Center

Link to more photos.

Wednesday, January 15, 2025 marked the groundbreaking of FosterHub's future Transitional Housing and Training Center. Next will come the building demolition. Then the architect will get to work. The estimated date for residents to be able to move in is May 1, 2026.

Foster care alumna Michelle Mays has poured so much of her heart and time into this project. I was inspired by how much work happened behind the scenes in order to make yesterday's groundbreaking a reality. Governor DeWine had wanted to do something big for Appalachia. He dedicated funding for transformational projects, that needed to be locally driven, with the goal of having an immediate and lasting community impact.

The process of choosing which projects to fund was competitive:

• As a staff member from Nationwide Children's Hospital shared: "Making history is not easy."
• But, as a representative from the Appalachian Children Coaltion shared, choosing to support FosterHub was an easy decision: "Because this is more than a building; it's a promise - a beacon of hope and a model of what's possible." 
• Representatives from the Jewish and Christian faiths were there, and one of them quoted Jeremiah 29:11 regarding: "Plans to give you a future and a hope."

Second Lady Tina Husted is a champion of this initiative. During the event, she gave Michelle Mays a lovely painting that she had created of a bridge that Michelle had run to as a child. She shared that her husband was adopted, and that his biological father had recommended an abortion. She talked about how, while growing up, she was inspired by a foster parent named Mrs. Cory, and how her 12 foster youth had a good life because someone loved them.