Christmas with Carly and the Kiddos

Link to photos.

Ginger-Kiddos

Just two more days...

Birthday Breakfast

Imprint Podcast: Making Holiday Traditions for Foster Youth

John Kelly of the Imprint came to Central Ohio Thanksgiving Together this year, and interviewed me on his podcast afterwards. 

Here's the link: (it starts with national updates, and Ohio-specific stuff starts at the 20 minute mark)

Hubby Love ~ On His Birthday

At the risk of sounding incredibly corny, my husband literally is the moon of my life, and I'm his sun and stars. Below is the Steaksgiving Dinner he made for me on Thanksgiving, along with the red door he recently surprised me with...

It's nice to come home to him at the end of each day...

The struggle of never quite feeling worthy of love

Two things stood out to me about this year's Thanksgiving Together events...

1. ) I love that My Very Own Blanket created trees for both dinners, so that participants could sign their leaf and be ironed on, and more leaves could be added each year. 

 Two quotes stood out to me from this weekend: 

• "We might not have our families, but we have this family."
• "This is the one time a year that I feel safe and secure and like I belong."
  
  

2. The other was what Jenny Stotts wrote on her leaf about being worthy of love. She wrote: "You are worthy of love, not for your doing. You are worthy of love simply because of your being."  

That is a tough one for me, and I know that it is for many of my siblings of foster care care system as well. We have learned at an early age that love, support and safety are not guaranteed. We have weathered neglect, abuse, and lack of affection. 

While entering into young adulthood, it can feel like we have to earn EVERYTHING. Even after all these years, and all this work, it is still far too easy to end up homeless after foster care. 

I love that our Chosen Family Tree keeps growing, and that we can continue to work together for better. I think we are going to have to remind one another that love isn't contingent on being perfect as well. 

I write this as someone who aged out of foster care early. I was admitted into college at age 16, and legally emancipated. I was homeless within a year. I moved into a Methodist dorm for cheap rent, and ended up finding my first family. 

But even after that, when I finished graduate school and got my first job, I couch-surfed for a while until I could afford my own apartment. Transitions aren't easy. Lack of family support doesn't just go away. 

Signing off with a quote that resonated with me in college, and that I still (often) have to remind myself of today: 

“When I was young, I thought that I had to be perfect for people to love me. I thought that if I ever did something wrong, their love would be withdrawn…

We need to give ourselves permission to be human, to try and to stumble, to be momentarily weak and to feel shame but to overcome that shame with moments of strength, courage and generosity.” -H. S. Kushner, You Don’t Have to Be Perfect To Be Loved.

Just as pain comes into our lives through relationships, healing does as well.

Click to enlarge image:

 

Housing vouchers for foster youth - and the role of youth in designing them

Thankful that the provisions we designed continue to make a difference. Ohio foster care youth and alumni volunteered our time to travel to Washington D.C. from 2013-2020:

a.) To work with federal legislators to author and advocate for the passage of the Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Act

b.) To meet with HUD to design the Foster Youth to Independence Initiative

Deeply grateful for Ruth Anne White and her tireless support of FSHO and FYI, and her dedication to remind others about the role of youth in making these provisions happen. 

When it comes to federal and state provisions designed for foster youth by foster youth, there can be a willful forgetfulness that happens over time. 

It is often up to us to chart and remember those pages in history. 

2023 Self Care Summit for Foster Youth and Alumni

Link to more photos.

September is Self-Care Awareness Month, and the OHIO YAB and ACTION Ohio partnered with Hope Valley and the Ohio Supreme Court to facilitate a self care retreat for current and former foster youth (ages 14-24).

The 2023 Self Care Summit for Ohio Foster Care Youth and Alumni took place on Friday, Sept. 8, 2023 at the Hope Valley Retreat Center, 4560 Gratiot Rd SE, Newark, OH 43056. We are grateful to the Ohio Supreme Court for sponsorship, Hope Valley for hosting, adult supporters for transporting youth, and to two CSCC professors for facilitating self-care activities. 

We received RSVPs from Allen, Athens, Belmont, Cuyahoga, Franklin, Hamilton, Lawrence, Licking, Lorain, Perry, and Van Wert counties. 

Extending foster care supports to age 23

One thing on my Wish List is for the state of Ohio to extend foster care supports to age 23.  

As former foster youth, at some of the proudest moments in our lives, like college graduation or getting a new job out of state, we are often thrust back into the same uncertainty that plagued us before and during foster care. 

Where will we live?  It can be difficult to cover rent at where we are currently staying, plus moving expenses, plus rent, deposit, etc. at the next location. It’s a very scary and precarious time.

Extending foster care supports to age 23 would provide a longer runway of support to young adults with a foster care history who are seeking to survive and thrive in Ohio.

23rd Wedding Anniversary and an Excellent Fourth of July

 

Click to enlarge

It was an amazing Fourth: 

• Early morning call with difference-makers
• Working on foster care projects for most of the day, with a break to cuddle and watch TV with the husband
• Yummy food made by the hubby for breakfast and lunch
• Roses for our 23rd anniversary still blooming...

Grateful for an awesome hubby and a productive day!

Kiddos Visit ~ June 2023

 

Link to more photos.

Tina Turner's legacy

Tina Turner’s legacy is perseverance: Doing something despite difficulty or delay in reaching success; continuing to pursue a commitment despite obstacles in the way. 

She grew up feeling unloved and unwanted. She experienced kinship care, parental abandonment, and domestic abuse. These two quotes capture her perspective:

Hope Landing in Licking County

What would it look like:

•  If you lived in a small county, among Ohio’s 88 options, and sincerely cared about improving foster care outcomes to the extent that you literally purchased a six bedroom apartment building?
  
  
• And if you cared so much that you partnered with others in order to ensure that every apartment was fully furnished, even down to the details of including kitchen and cleaning supplies?

It would look like the beautiful example that I saw during my visit to Hope Landing on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. I wish with all my heart that each and every one of Ohio’s (diverse, budget strapped, focusing on other things) counties had a local partner who was willing to make this level of commitment.

Hope Landing is a short-term transitional housing unit located in the Newark-Heath area that gives youth a chance to get on their feet. It provides former foster youth with a safe place to live while connecting them with community services and mentoring to help them get a job, obtain a driver’s license, and learn how to live independently. Hope Landing is a place for youth in transition to catch their breath, figure out next steps, and prepare to and move on to a successful future.

Link to more photos.

Lisa's interview with Angela Tucker of REFCA

I was honored to be named a REFCA Champion and to be interviewed by Angela Tucker as part of the INNOVATE! podcast series. The acronym stands for: Re-Envisioning of Foster Care in America.

Here's a link to the interview:

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1885968/12800858  

Show Notes: REFCA Champion Lisa Dickson is involved in a wide array of initiatives in Ohio that amplify and honor youth voice and experience. She works diligently to ensure that young people living in foster care are designing and implementing on the federal level, including speaking directly to HUD leadership. In this episode of INNOVATE!, Lisa shares the story of how she helped create a youth-specific Ombudsman Office and how she advocated for the inclusion of youth voice and leadership in the passing of the Fostering Stable Housing Opportunities Act.   

Foster Love ~ Two Scholarship Opportunities

 

Link to details about the BrandSource Scholarship

Link to details about the Family Fellowship Scholarship

April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

When youth report being abused, we need to listen and take them seriously.

Op Ed by Jonathan Thomas

As a former foster youth and a person of color, I am concerned that efforts to renew a federal law that exists to protect youth from abuse have repeatedly been delayed. Concerns have been expressed by biological parents and their allies that foster care systems demonize poverty and promote white supremacy and classism. The voices that are missing in national discussions regarding the renewal of this bill are those of young people who have experienced familial abuse personally.

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) provides federal funding to states to prevent and respond to child abuse and neglect. It requires states to facilitate mandated reporting and procedures to respond to ensure children’s safety. This federal bill expired in 2015 and is still awaiting renewal.

Foster care is imperfect and many aspects of it can be improved. However, without foster care, my siblings and I would have continued to experience abuse without intervention. As a child, I often wished that someone would stop by my house and witness the abuse that my siblings and I were experiencing. I hear stories about other kids whose summers were filled with sunny day adventures. My summers were filled with abuse and fear.

Being placed in foster care created a seismic shift from the environment of my childhood. It gave me a new understanding that a home could be physically and emotionally safe. It provided me with a different mindset about relationships and what it means to be a man.

Claims have been made by family rights advocates that Children’s Services has a hidden agenda to surveil and regulate families of color, for the purpose of taking more youth into care. What I’ve witnessed is the opposite: Within the overworked foster care system, young people of color must often report their abuse many times before their voices are heard.

The abuse that took place within my family was deeply ingrained and life-threatening. We were deliberately insulated from authorities by my father, and told, “What happens in the home stays in the home.” It was my sister who found the courage to tell a teacher what was happening. Even after doing so, she had to take the next step and run away, to further demonstrate the danger of our living situation.

It’s important to note that disproportionality among races within the foster care system exists -- but it does not exist within a vacuum. Our nation’s housing, education, health care and policing systems are overshadowed by a history of racial inequities and racist practices. Addressing those structural issues will help improve outcomes for families of color. Linking families with services and resources can assist in many circumstances. But, in situations of abuse, the safety of youth can never be sacrificed. 

As a survivor of abuse, I want to emphasize that children and teens of all races and ethnicities deserve to be protected. It is vitally important that youth safety remains first and foremost. Experiencing abuse as a child doesn’t just impact your present – without intervention, it can undermine your future. At the very time as a child when you are developing autonomy, the abusive surroundings are robbing it from you.

When it comes to national conversations regarding the renewal of the CAPTA legislation, there is one more voice that hasn’t and cannot be heard: The voices of children and teens who have lost their lives due to abuse.

A 2021 study by Case Western Reserve University’s Schubert Center for Child Studies revealed that Cuyahoga County’s “rate of confirmed abuse or neglect-related child deaths is significantly higher than the national average.”

In my role as a Youth Ambassador for the OHIO YAB (Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board), I will continue to advocate for safeguards to protect today’s young people. My goal is to leave a legacy of better and ongoing protections for those who experience abuse as a child.

~ Jonathan Thomas credits the foster-care system with turning around his life and that of his siblings after they suffered abuse as children and were removed into foster care. He currently serves as a youth ambassador for the Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board, a statewide organization of youth ages 14 to 21 who’ve experienced foster care.

This Issue is An Elephant

My early morning thoughts after reading about youth spending nights in Franklin County Children Services offices...

Sometimes complex issues like this one can be like the story about the Seven Blind Mice and the Elephant. In that story, one mouse touches the elephant’s foot, goes back to his fellow mice and tells them it’s a pillar. The next day, another mouse goes out, touches the elephant’s trunk and reports back to tell them that, no, it’s a snake. The following day, another mouse touches one of the tusks and says it’s a spear. And so on. 

Until finally one brave mouse has the courage and the fortitude to explore the entire elephant. She doesn’t just see the issue from one angle. She runs up one side and down the other. She studies it from top to bottom, and from end to end. And then reports back that the Something is: “As sturdy as a pillar, as supple as a snake, as wide as a cliff, as sharp as a spear…” and all the other descriptions. Because that Something is an Elephant. 

This is the story that comes repeatedly to my mind when it comes to this issue, the underlying factors, and thinking outside the box when it comes to solutions to effectively address it. 

Because 'Elephant in the Room' is that: 

• This is not a new crisis, because it’s shedding light on a pervasive one. This issue has existed in Franklin County for years, and youth for whom they couldn’t find immediate placements for were often sent to Pomegranate. 

• Reducing the number of group homes has lessened the number of safe options for youth who need placement. While group homes have fallen far out of favor, they are preferable to spending nights in county offices or being sent unnecessarily to residential facilities. 

• It’s always been challenging to find good foster parents for teens and tweens, and post-COVID, foster care recruitment is more difficult than ever before. 

• There is too much focus on trying to label the youth themselves as troubled, and describing their “behavior" rather than the fact that it’s the situation itself that is traumatizing. A teenage girl spends a series of nights in a county office. She is terrified and uncertain of what will happen next. A supervisor says the girl has “taken over this room.” The police are called when the girl begins to mention self-harm or lashing out at others. The situation itself calls for a trauma informed response and a compassionate one. 

• County child welfare agencies are undergoing a staffing crisis. The article quotes an FCCS supervisor saying: “We have no staff. We have no one. I can’t say that enough.” Likewise Hamilton County has a 40% vacancy rate for child welfare caseworkers. During COVID, Cuyahoga County pulled workers off the child abuse hotline to supervise children in the building. 

• Ohio was the last state in the nation to make police and sheriffs mandated reporters, and it sounds like there is definitely a need for follow up training. The mention in the article of two “use of force reports” from the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, including one involving an 11 year old, was troubling. But it was encouraging to reach about Officer Brooke Cano from Whitehall Police who has a passion for helping children who are staying at the FCCS offices. She has led by example by taking additional classes to learn how to de-escalate. When transporting youth, Officer Cano often plays their favorite music. It’s not surprising that body cam footage recorded teens becoming calmer after their conversations with Cano. 

Crucial Conversations - Advocacy is full of them

 

Youth Leaders Discuss Safety Concerns for Cuyahoga County Youth

Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell

On Wednesday, January 11, 2023, Cieria Roman, Raven Grice and Lisa Dickson participated in a virtual meeting with Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell and Policy Advisor LeVine Ross to discuss safety concerns related to Cuyahoga County youth, especially those that have been spending the nights in the Jane Edna Hunter building on a regular basis since 2018.

This was preceded by a prior meeting with Councilman Dale Miller, during which he recommended that we speak with Councilwoman Conwell.

Ohio youth leaders shared their concerns and recommendations, and how important that it is to have foster care youth and alumni at the table. Because it is our lived experience that brings a sense of urgency. Today's youth and young adults often come up with creative solutions that others might not think of...

As Cieria said, “We come ready, we come with our hearts, we come with solutions. These are our brothers and sisters and this is our legacy.”

We also shared:

• Raven's written testimonial about the need for Independent Living Departments

• The work that the OHIO YAB has done on Life Skills Training 

• The videos created by Jewel Harris and Marissa Alcorn and her chosen family to recruit foster parents for teens, and Kelsie’s three part video about What It’s Like to Be a Teen Mom in Foster Care and What Teen Moms in Foster Care Need From Their Foster Parents and that Teen Moms in Foster Care Have Rights and Resources

Councilwoman Yvonne Conwell followed up by sending a message of thanks, and some ideas for next steps forward. 

Ohio Foster Care Youth and Alumni Advocacy in 2023

In 2022... 

• Ohio's very first Youth Ombudsman's Office was created. 

• Ohio foster youth helped design a training pathway to aid foster parents in supporting youth with Life Skills and the essential elements of interdependence. 

• Ohio youth leaders created a three-part video series to support teen moms in foster care, and shared insights about the ICCA form, CANS assessment and Tiered Foster Care. 
  
  

2023 will be a year of continued advocacy for...

• Concrete supports for former foster youth after the age of 21.

• Better safeguards for youth who run away from abusive situations, and continued conversations with the Cuyahoga County Council.

• Hosting a Self Care Summit for current and former foster youth.