Fostered teens in Ohio get lessons in making it on their own
Blackwell, Brandon. Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 28, 2013.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Next month, 19-year-old Re’Gine Wells will leave foster care. The looming independence frightens her, but on Thursday Wells gained a bit of courage to tackle life outside the system.
The Clevelander was one of nearly 300 fostered teens from around the state who descended on Columbus for the “Connecting the Dots Conference,” where those facing autonomous adulthood were given tips and tools to make it on their own.
The conference, now in its second year and sponsored by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, provided a day of workshops and mentoring on resume writing, dressing for a job interview, renting an apartment and more.
“You are here today because at some point in your life very soon you are going to leave the foster care system, and we have to get you ready to leave,” said Michael Colbert, ODJFS director, during the conference’s opening remarks. “You will succeed. When you leave foster care, it is our goal that you go to work, or college, or the armed forces -- not through a door that is not positive.”
Nationally, about 81 percent of males formerly in foster care are arrested by the time they turn 24, and nearly half of all females formerly in foster care become pregnant by the time they turn 19, according to ODJFS.
“We are going to change foster care for the better in this state,” Colbert said. “We are not going to accept the status quo.”
Benjamin Johnson, ODJFS spokesman, said more than 1,000 young people in Ohio age out of foster care each year. Many age out at 18, but those who are still in high school or are pursuing a GED may stay in foster care until they finish, he said.
Wells recently completed her GED.
“I’m really scared right now, but I think I’ll make it,” Wells said. “The [Connect the Dots] program gives me confidence. I think it’s great that I get to learn and socialize with people who can relate to me.”
Those at the conference were able to choose among more than a dozen workshops to attend. Topics included personal health, public speaking and applying to college.
Wells, who entered the foster system at age 15, said she hopes to attend Cuyahoga Community College in the spring.
“I’d like to be an accountant or financial adviser,” Wells said. “I love working with numbers.”
The conference is part of a larger “Connecting the Dots” initiative, which brings together ODJFS and Big Brothers Big Sisters to help allay the struggles of transitioning out of foster care.
“Connecting the Dots” in April announced it would launch its program in five pilot locations, including Cuyahoga County, with the goal of determining best practices across the state.
The program will bring “fundamental, systemic changes” to foster care in Ohio, Colbert said.
Wells is grateful for the support.
“I don’t think you could advocate enough for foster care,” she said. “We just want the same opportunities as everyone else. We’re not all damaged goods.”
Wednesday, August 07, 2013
Summit County Connecting the Dots Program
Summit County attempts to smooth transition for foster kids aging out of the system
Armon, Rick. Akron Beacon Journal, July 25, 2013.
Armon, Rick. Akron Beacon Journal, July 25, 2013.
Saunja Mayfield, a clothing specialist with Summit County Children Services, talks about her involvement in the pilot program called Connecting the Dots, during an interview in her office on Wednesday, June 26, 2013, in Akron, Ohio. The program tries to help foster kids who are aging out of the system with real life situations. (Ed Suba Jr./Akron Beacon Journal)
After about eight years living with foster families, Saunja Mayfield wanted to break free of the system and be on her own.
At 19, she thought she knew it all and wanted to live by her own rules, just like any rebellious teen.
Looking back, Mayfield, now 24, admits she was unprepared for life with no family or institutional support. She ended up homeless bouncing from house to house.
“Life hits you hard after you get out,” she said. “You feel like the whole world is against you.”
Her experience is common for the 1,000 to 1,300 young Ohioans — and estimated 24,000 kids nationwide — who age out of the foster care system each year.
To try to improve the oftentimes bumpy transition, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Big Brothers Big Sisters and eight counties, including Summit, have launched a pilot program called “Connecting the Dots from Foster Care to Employment and Independent Living.”
It’s designed to better prepare foster kids and those recently emancipated for work, vocational training or college, and just plain living on their own.
Summit, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Lake, Montgomery, Preble, Clinton and Greene counties are participating. The state has devoted nearly $6 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) money for the three-year effort, including $537,000 in Summit.
The goal is eventually to roll out the best practices statewide.
Sobering statistics
Without parents pushing and teaching life lessons, the odds are stacked against foster kids. And there’s no safety net for them to fall back on.
Nationally, 81 percent of the boys are arrested by age 24, while 48 percent of the girls become pregnant by age 19.
A third have household incomes below the poverty level, a quarter experience post-traumatic stress disorder, and nearly a quarter end up homeless.
“We know that the statistics nationwide for young adults who leave foster care without being adopted are not good,” said Benjamin Johnson, spokesman with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. “We wanted to develop a program to counteract that.”
Boot camp
The Summit County program involves giving the at-risk teens a job for two years, assigning them mentors, offering tutoring and providing career counseling along the way.
A collaborative effort among the county Department of Job & Family Services, Children Services and agencies such as Goodwill Industries, the program began last month with a “boot camp” at the Job Center in Akron.
Nearly 30 teens gathered to play games and listen to a variety of speakers, including Mayfield.
She now works as a clothing specialist, ironically, at Summit County Children Services, the same agency that she was so desperate to escape.
One of eight children, she ended up in foster care after her parents were busted for drug problems.
The Akron woman, who has a 1-year-old child and is not married, dreams of becoming a social worker or counselor so she can help others.
Her advice for those in the system: Take advantage of all the educational opportunities offered and don’t feel sorry for yourself.
“You’re not the only foster kid in the world,” Mayfield said. “Don’t be bitter about it.”
One day at the boot camp, the topics ranged from building credit to how to dress for a job interview to staying out of trouble to riding the bus.
For foster kids, these are big issues.
“Young men, if I can see your underwear, you won’t even start to be interviewed,” Goodwill Industries Director of Career Services Christine Fontaine told them bluntly.
Meanwhile, Robert Sukel, a program manager at Greenleaf Family Center in Akron, advised them to be careful with their cash.
“There are so many people out there trained to separate you from your money,” he said.
On the job
Ten of the teens are working at the Goodwill facility on Waterloo Road in Akron.
“The important part with these kids is teaching basic work skills,” Fontaine said during a recent tour. “We’re trying to instill a work ethic.”
That, of course, and encourage them to pursue a career. They have grown up with a narrow view of the work world and don’t even consider some careers.
“Why can’t you be a registered nurse?” Fontaine asked. “Why can’t you be a chef?”
Nervous excitement
The Beacon Journal sat down with three teens participating in the Connecting the Dots program at Goodwill.
All three had become emancipated within the last couple of weeks.
They expressed excitement over their newfound freedom and, at the same time, nervousness.
Cortez Brown, 18, of Akron, now lives in his own apartment with financial help from Children Services. He will be training at Stark State College to be an auto technician and also wants to enter the music industry.
His foster parents warned him in advance about the expenses he would face: Rent, utilities and groceries, for example.
“I was kind of worried, kind of scared and it was kind of frightening that I was on my own,” Brown said. “I didn’t have anybody else. I was going to take care of myself. After that [initial feeling], things started to work out for me and I’m starting to get used to it.”
Ashley Hosterman, 18, of Akron, still lives with her foster family. She feels prepared for being on her own.
“I know a lot of things, but maybe not everything,” said Hosterman, who wants to be a massage therapist. “Yes, I am ready. That way I can finally say, ‘This is my home. This is my place.’ ”
But they also questioned whether anyone or any program can truly prepare foster kids for the experience. Sometimes, teens just don’t listen.
“I don’t think anybody can teach you,” said Kara Sweet, 19, who lives at the Highlands shelter because she’s pregnant and is headed to Stark State to study culinary arts and restaurant management. “You have to do it for yourself.”
At 19, she thought she knew it all and wanted to live by her own rules, just like any rebellious teen.
Looking back, Mayfield, now 24, admits she was unprepared for life with no family or institutional support. She ended up homeless bouncing from house to house.
“Life hits you hard after you get out,” she said. “You feel like the whole world is against you.”
Her experience is common for the 1,000 to 1,300 young Ohioans — and estimated 24,000 kids nationwide — who age out of the foster care system each year.
To try to improve the oftentimes bumpy transition, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Big Brothers Big Sisters and eight counties, including Summit, have launched a pilot program called “Connecting the Dots from Foster Care to Employment and Independent Living.”
It’s designed to better prepare foster kids and those recently emancipated for work, vocational training or college, and just plain living on their own.
Summit, Cuyahoga, Hamilton, Lake, Montgomery, Preble, Clinton and Greene counties are participating. The state has devoted nearly $6 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) money for the three-year effort, including $537,000 in Summit.
The goal is eventually to roll out the best practices statewide.
Sobering statistics
Without parents pushing and teaching life lessons, the odds are stacked against foster kids. And there’s no safety net for them to fall back on.
Nationally, 81 percent of the boys are arrested by age 24, while 48 percent of the girls become pregnant by age 19.
A third have household incomes below the poverty level, a quarter experience post-traumatic stress disorder, and nearly a quarter end up homeless.
“We know that the statistics nationwide for young adults who leave foster care without being adopted are not good,” said Benjamin Johnson, spokesman with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. “We wanted to develop a program to counteract that.”
Boot camp
The Summit County program involves giving the at-risk teens a job for two years, assigning them mentors, offering tutoring and providing career counseling along the way.
A collaborative effort among the county Department of Job & Family Services, Children Services and agencies such as Goodwill Industries, the program began last month with a “boot camp” at the Job Center in Akron.
Nearly 30 teens gathered to play games and listen to a variety of speakers, including Mayfield.
She now works as a clothing specialist, ironically, at Summit County Children Services, the same agency that she was so desperate to escape.
One of eight children, she ended up in foster care after her parents were busted for drug problems.
The Akron woman, who has a 1-year-old child and is not married, dreams of becoming a social worker or counselor so she can help others.
Her advice for those in the system: Take advantage of all the educational opportunities offered and don’t feel sorry for yourself.
“You’re not the only foster kid in the world,” Mayfield said. “Don’t be bitter about it.”
One day at the boot camp, the topics ranged from building credit to how to dress for a job interview to staying out of trouble to riding the bus.
For foster kids, these are big issues.
“Young men, if I can see your underwear, you won’t even start to be interviewed,” Goodwill Industries Director of Career Services Christine Fontaine told them bluntly.
Meanwhile, Robert Sukel, a program manager at Greenleaf Family Center in Akron, advised them to be careful with their cash.
“There are so many people out there trained to separate you from your money,” he said.
On the job
Ten of the teens are working at the Goodwill facility on Waterloo Road in Akron.
“The important part with these kids is teaching basic work skills,” Fontaine said during a recent tour. “We’re trying to instill a work ethic.”
That, of course, and encourage them to pursue a career. They have grown up with a narrow view of the work world and don’t even consider some careers.
“Why can’t you be a registered nurse?” Fontaine asked. “Why can’t you be a chef?”
Nervous excitement
The Beacon Journal sat down with three teens participating in the Connecting the Dots program at Goodwill.
All three had become emancipated within the last couple of weeks.
They expressed excitement over their newfound freedom and, at the same time, nervousness.
Cortez Brown, 18, of Akron, now lives in his own apartment with financial help from Children Services. He will be training at Stark State College to be an auto technician and also wants to enter the music industry.
His foster parents warned him in advance about the expenses he would face: Rent, utilities and groceries, for example.
“I was kind of worried, kind of scared and it was kind of frightening that I was on my own,” Brown said. “I didn’t have anybody else. I was going to take care of myself. After that [initial feeling], things started to work out for me and I’m starting to get used to it.”
Ashley Hosterman, 18, of Akron, still lives with her foster family. She feels prepared for being on her own.
“I know a lot of things, but maybe not everything,” said Hosterman, who wants to be a massage therapist. “Yes, I am ready. That way I can finally say, ‘This is my home. This is my place.’ ”
But they also questioned whether anyone or any program can truly prepare foster kids for the experience. Sometimes, teens just don’t listen.
“I don’t think anybody can teach you,” said Kara Sweet, 19, who lives at the Highlands shelter because she’s pregnant and is headed to Stark State to study culinary arts and restaurant management. “You have to do it for yourself.”
Jenny Konrath interviewed on behalf of the OHIO YAB
Coming of Age: Preparing Ohio's Older Foster Youth for Life
Kuhlman, Mary. Public News Service-OH, June 4, 2013.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The years spent coming of age are a critical time in a youth's life, especially for those who must face this time without the support of a stable home environment. In Ohio, the "Connecting the Dots" initiative is helping teenagers and young adults who have been in foster care make a successful transition into adulthood.
Nearly 1300 youth age out of foster care every year, but according to the director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Michael Colbert, many of them just go into another door in the system.
"They either go into a door of incarceration, a door of poverty or a door of despair," he declared. "We are trying to change that. We want those young people to go into college or we want 'em to go into a job, but in order for that to happen, we have to prepare them for life, just like we do our own kids, because they are our kids."
Connecting the Dots partners with Big Brothers Big Sisters to mentor older foster youth and prepare them for work, education and independent living. Meanwhile, Colbert said, they are also focused on finding a family for every child still in care. Through a partnership with the Dave Thomas Foundation, 35 specialized recruiters are working throughout the state with the sole mission of finding adoptive families for older children in foster care.
Colbert said the support of state leaders, including Governor John Kasich, has helped to make these initiatives possible, along with guidance from Ohio's Youth Advisory Board.
Jennifer Konrath is among those on that board, which advises leaders on ways to improve the foster care system. She grew up in foster care and will graduate this year, and said she's grateful to the resources available that have guided her on her path.
"As foster youth, we don't have our parents to teach us how to find a job, what to wear, who to talk to for different things like housing or just everyday needs," Konrath said. "And it's hard as a foster youth because we didn't grow up with having a person to rely on for that."
Ohio currently has close to 12,000 children in foster care.
Kuhlman, Mary. Public News Service-OH, June 4, 2013.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - The years spent coming of age are a critical time in a youth's life, especially for those who must face this time without the support of a stable home environment. In Ohio, the "Connecting the Dots" initiative is helping teenagers and young adults who have been in foster care make a successful transition into adulthood.
Nearly 1300 youth age out of foster care every year, but according to the director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, Michael Colbert, many of them just go into another door in the system.
"They either go into a door of incarceration, a door of poverty or a door of despair," he declared. "We are trying to change that. We want those young people to go into college or we want 'em to go into a job, but in order for that to happen, we have to prepare them for life, just like we do our own kids, because they are our kids."
Connecting the Dots partners with Big Brothers Big Sisters to mentor older foster youth and prepare them for work, education and independent living. Meanwhile, Colbert said, they are also focused on finding a family for every child still in care. Through a partnership with the Dave Thomas Foundation, 35 specialized recruiters are working throughout the state with the sole mission of finding adoptive families for older children in foster care.
Colbert said the support of state leaders, including Governor John Kasich, has helped to make these initiatives possible, along with guidance from Ohio's Youth Advisory Board.
Jennifer Konrath is among those on that board, which advises leaders on ways to improve the foster care system. She grew up in foster care and will graduate this year, and said she's grateful to the resources available that have guided her on her path.
"As foster youth, we don't have our parents to teach us how to find a job, what to wear, who to talk to for different things like housing or just everyday needs," Konrath said. "And it's hard as a foster youth because we didn't grow up with having a person to rely on for that."
Ohio currently has close to 12,000 children in foster care.
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