Way to go, Allissa Mitchell -- OHIO YAB President

• Foster kids rising: Teens honored for overcoming the odds

Two Stark County teens, both former foster children, have been recognized as “Rising Stars” by the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. Eighteen-year-olds Allissa Mitchell and Dayree Stokes were among four recently emancipated teens in the state to receive the honor.

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  CantonRep.com/Scott Heckel |
  

  Allissa Mitchell, 18, is stumping for passage of Ohio House Bill 50. The bill extends benefits for foster children from the current cutoff age of 18 to 21.
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  By Tim Botos
  CantonRep.com staff writer 
  

  
  Posted Nov. 21, 2015 at 9:00 AM
  Updated Nov 21, 2015 at 9:26 PM 
  
  
  

  Two Stark County teens, both former foster children, have been recognized as “Rising Stars” by the Public Children Services Association of Ohio.

  Eighteen-year-olds Allissa Mitchell and Dayree Stokes were among four recently emancipated teens in the state to receive the honor. They were lauded for overcoming adversity to put themselves in position to be successful adults, despite the fact foster children are at greater risk for such problems as homelessness and incarceration.

  “That was a really good day,” Mitchell said, recalling the awards luncheon in Columbus.

  Mitchell entered foster care at age 16. She spent a year in one foster home and a year in a second. She graduated this year from Massillon Washington High, where she played drums for the concert and marching bands and sang in the choir. Today, she lives in an apartment with her brother and a friend. Along the way, she was among a group to testify on Capitol Hill about a proposed federal supportive housing program for former foster children similar to Veterans Affairs Supportive Housing.

  “Allissa is a hard worker ... she has a lot of goals,” said Julie Willis, an independent-living specialist who works with children 14 and older for the Stark County Department of Job & Family Services.

  Mitchell has landed a job at Adolescent Behavioral Health in Canton, where she works with children who have suffered emotional and physical abuse. In fact, she already has received one promotion.

  “They actually recruited her from a camp we had,” Willis said.

  Mitchell hasn’t seen her mother in two years.

  “It’s sad, really ... I love my mom,” she said. “But I had to get myself out of the self-pity.”

  As a member of the Stark County Youth Advisory Board, and president of a similar state board, Mitchell has stumped for improved foster-child benefits. And she keeps a close eye on Ohio House Bill 50 and the pending Ohio Senate Bill 240 that would extend benefits to foster children through age 21.

  The Ohio Fostering Connections initiative has been in the works for more than six years. The goal is to tap into federal funds available through the Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 to help defray the additional costs; 26 other states have, or will implement, similar programs.

  “I know a lot of people who are couch-surfing,” Mitchell said, referring to friends with no permanent home.

  Mitchell and Stokes are among the 3,000 Ohioans who came through foster care and now are between the ages of 18 and 21. Some children who leave foster care at age 18 have nowhere to go.

  That’s not to say they receive no benefits. They are eligible for a medical card until age 26, and can qualify for more than $10,000 a year in college tuition grants. However, not every county in Ohio handles emancipated children, and their benefits, in exactly the same manner.

  “There are 88 different ways to do things,” Willis said.

  Stokes, the other local teen honored by PCSAO, was placed, along with her own infant daughter, in a foster home a year ago. Faced with the potential of losing her child, Stokes landed a job at a restaurant and found housing.

  She plans to attend Stark State College to study culinary arts, with hopes of one day owning her own restaurant.

Southeast Ohio's First-ever Regional Thanksgiving Reunion for Current and Former Foster Youth

OU hosts first Thanksgiving lunch for foster care students 
Hofacker, Catherine, Ohio University,  Nov 21, 2015.

It is the season of giving and the Ohio Reach Scholars Program is giving back to the community.

 On Nov. 15, The Office of Multicultural Student Access and Retention in partnership with the Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America and other agencies hosted a Thanksgiving lunch in Jefferson Hall for Southeast Ohio foster care children and their families.  (ACTION Ohio was the primary facilitating organization, and Athens County CASA, Foster Parent Organization, and JFS helped a great deal)

The early Thanksgiving dinner for current and former foster youth is a statewide event, but this is the first year one has been hosted in Southeast Ohio. The 1 to 4 p.m. lunch was an opportunity to introduce high school foster care students to a college environment and integrate them into the Ohio University family.

“These events are important because they raise awareness in the community about children in foster care,” said Michael Outrich, a senior geographic information systems major. “It allows the Ohio Reach Scholars and Ohio University to reach out and serve the community. It also offers a glimpse into what higher education is to those who are in foster care by showing them the resources and support available to them if they choose to attend college at Ohio University.”

In the past, OMSAR has coordinated alternative programming for the Ohio Reach Scholars during family-themed weekends. Jacob Okumu, program coordinator for student outreach and development services, said the Scholars now want to help plan an event for others.

“They’re already asking, what can we do to help, to reach out to other people?” Okumu said. “You (OMSAR) are creating an opportunity for us to now acknowledge that we have gifts and talents and that we can actually give back.”

 Marlene De La Cruz-Guzman, director of OMSAR, said the Ohio Reach Scholars can play an instrumental role in mentoring the high school foster care students. “One of the things that they tell us is they wish they’d had our services even before they came to Ohio University … this is a really good opportunity for them to touch base with the next group of Scholars,”

De La Cruz-Guzman said. De La Cruz-Guzman also said there was a lot of support for the event, not only within the university, but also from the Athens community. Local barbecue restaurant Kiser’s catered the Thanksgiving lunch, Ohio University Housing and Residence Life provided the space and many of the foster parents brought desserts.

“Everyone was grateful for those who put in the time and effort into planning for the event and for making it a huge success,” Outrich said. “The food was absolutely delicious and the sense of family and community was felt among us all.”

In the future, OMSAR wants to establish a formal student mentoring program so that foster care students in high school have the opportunity to connect with Ohio Reach Scholars and learn firsthand about the services and resources available to them at the University, such as financial aid and free health care.

OMSAR hopes to use this first Thanksgiving lunch as the groundwork for growth. Future Ohio Reach Scholars Program initiatives include establishing a grant writing program, formalizing the student mentoring program and reaching out to local organizations to welcome foster care students to the Athens campus.

“It’s really important for us at Ohio University to develop this identity that’s committed to serving Ohio Reach Scholars because we’re not only setting out once you get here to support you, but we’re going to make those connections now while you’re still in high school,” De La Cruz-Guzman said.

Resource for Franklin County foster youth

Independent Scholars Network ~ applications now open

Congratulations, HEMI

Susan Zaghlool and her story

A triumph of foster care
Cornutte, Mark. Cincinnati Enquirer, July 2, 2009. 

At a time college graduates face one of the worst job markets in decades, Susan Zaghlool has options. She's weighing six-figure offers from a number of companies. She's looking at signing bonuses backed up by many zeroes. Part of what makes her a success story is the fact social workers plucked Zaghlool from an abusive home in 1994 at age 12. 

She then lived in a tough Over-the-Rhine group home before striking out on her own as a high school senior. Zaghlool earned her doctorate in pharmacy in May, a lofty achievement for a foster child who was part of a group where just barely 70 percent finish high school and only 13 percent attend college.

Petite and dark with a head full of curly black hair, Zaghlool cracks a high-wattage smile when she talks about where she's come from and where she's going. Her past is seasoned with adults who had faith in her - social workers, teachers and employers. And a mentor who still reaches out to help all these years later. 

A decade after they met, Zaghlool still can count on John Kasak, a retired General Electric engineer, when times get rough. "My father," she called him. "Where would I be without the people who helped me?" she said.

Kasak and other adults formed a support system for her, something that more policymakers here and nationally would like to provide for other foster children. Legislation is pending in Congress - the Foster Care Mentoring Act of 2009 - to pay for programs and forgive $20,000 in federal student loans for college graduates who mentor foster children.

Hamilton County in May started the Higher Education Mentoring Initiative for foster children. The program seeks to reduce crime and prepare foster children for college. The University of Cincinnati, a partner with Hamilton County, plans to offer financial aid to former foster children enrolled there. 

Long walk begins 
Born in Cairo, Egypt, Zaghlool came to the United States as a preschooler when her father, an engineering professor, took a job at the University of California. He moved his family to Ohio a year later to start a computer business. When his only daughter turned 12, he wanted her at home to cook, clean and care for the family's four sons. He hit her and pulled her from beneath her bed by the hair, according to Butler County Children Services records.

"Seven of us lived in a two-bedroom trailer," Zaghlool said. Wearing blue jeans, Zaghlool recently sat on a swing in a park she played in as a child. She came back recently for the first time since she was taken from her family.

"Everybody heard my mom screaming at us in Arabic," she said. "She threw plates at me. I was the bad child." Zaghlool tried to be what she called "normal," but her garage-sale clothing and dark skin made her and her brothers stand out in affluent Lakota schools. She tried smoking marijuana to ease her teen angst.

"I was hopeless at that age," Zaghlool said. "I had the worst family. I didn't think I could ever move up."

Lakota officials filed a report with Butler County Children Services because of her truancy. She was taken from the home briefly. Zaghlool's father promised officials he'd home-school his daughter. She returned to the trailer. He didn't teach her, but she wanted to learn.

One day, she criticized him in a grocery store. He hit her, records show. She hit back and ran away. He called the police. She filed a police report. An investigation revealed the family was in the United States illegally. Her mother and two brothers were sent back to Egypt in 1997. Her father escaped to Canada.

Zaghlool was not deported because she was in temporary custody as a state foster child. The irony of her childhood is not lost on her. The fact she was abused kept her here. "I am truly blessed," said Zaghlool, who became a U.S. citizen last year.

Support system
Zaghlool patched together her own support system through a combination of good fortune and relentless hard work. With no foster care available in Butler County, she ended up in Hearne House, a group home on Elm Street near Cincinnati's Music Hall.

"She believed in education and doing her homework; she read books," home director James Smith said.

Every morning, Zaghlool left before 6:30, walked through Washington Park, east on 13th Street, north on Vine Street and past Kroger. She caught the No. 46 bus to Aiken High School. At ages 15 and 16, she worked at the Vine Street Kroger as a bagger and cashier.

Adrian Oliver then managed the store. "It was a rough place," he said. "She was smart, confident and outgoing. She was not afraid to say hello. She was positive and upbeat." Zaghlool heard about an opening in the pharmacy at the Hyde Park Kroger. She asked Oliver to help. He recommended her. That taste of the pharmacy mapped out her career. She wanted to work in a medical field.

Zaghlool also impressed her Aiken teachers. During her freshman year, consumer sciences teacher Marty Kamrani discovered that beneath Zaghlool's sad shell was a smart girl. "She eventually took everything people offered her and moved forward," the teacher said.

As a student, she was matched with Kasak through GE's partner-in-education program. "She worked the hardest," Kasak said. "She was focused." Sticking with her More important than what Kasak did for her while at Aiken, he stayed with her after she turned 18.

"One of the hardest things (about being a foster child) is when you turn 18 the people who loved you just disappear," she said. "It's like they were paid to love you. As a foster child, you want to be loved ... Once you're out of the system, goodbye, like you never existed. A lot of kids lose hope." 

Kasak, now 78, stuck with Zaghlool. He and his wife, Audrey, invited her to their house for dinner and played board games. "We kind of adopted her," he said.

Kasak taught her how to budget her money. He helped her write her resume and prepare college and scholarship applications. She earned the Darwin T. Turner minority scholarship at UC, which gave her a full ride to the school. He also helped her with the citizenship application. 

Keeping busy 
She majored in chemistry and earned a 3.3 grade point average. She lived in a dorm during the summers after her freshman and sophomore years. She worked as a resident assistant and got involved in student government.

Summers were difficult. "It was so lonely, so I took classes the second year to make it feel more normal," she said.

Earlier in life, Zaghlool experienced enough loneliness to cope with college. She stayed busy. She had lived by herself in an independent living program as an Aiken senior.

Laura Bennett, now a Butler County Children Services night supervisor, started the program and worked with Zaghlool. "Susan will always give credit to people who helped her, but people were drawn to her," Bennett said. "She didn't have the attitude that `the world owes me.' She went for what she wanted. She didn't get angry about her family situation, and she hardly ever said anything about her dad."

As the stakes grew higher, Zaghlool limited e-mail and phone contact with her family. She had nothing to do with her father, although she visited her mother and other family members in Egypt in 2000. "They didn't understand what I was trying to do," 

Zaghlool said of the demands of Lake Erie College's pharmacy school, in Erie, Pa. "They stressed me out, made me feel anxious. You can't afford one bad day or to be distracted."

Still, her life as a former foster child is never far behind her. She said she is stalked by a man who lived with her at the Over-the-Rhine group home.

More angels have appeared. Through the Orphan Foundation of America, based in Washington, Zaghlool won a $20,000 scholarship provided by Barbara and Marshall Grimes, a childless couple from Vienna, Va. That money helped pay for pharmacy school.

"We wanted to help a child who didn't have a family," Barbara Grimes said. "Marshall's dad was a pharmacist." She called Zaghlool to ask about her studies. They traded e-mails and photos. Barbara Grimes sent homemade cookies throughout the year and a Christmas care package.

No sense of entitlement 
"She was always very grateful. She never had the attitude that she was entitled to anything," Barbara Grimes said. The couple finally met her May 31 in Erie at graduation. They weren't the only ones there for the former foster kid from Cincinnati's tough inner city. John and Audrey Kasak were there, too, like they've been many times in the past.

When Zaghlool crashed her car last winter, Kasak told her not to worry and co-signed a car loan for her. She wants to work in Greater Cincinnati. She is $150,000 in debt from her student loans for pharmacy school, but as soon as she gets stable financially, she wants to donate money to Hearne House.

That she was a foster child is never far from her mind. Even at this positive crossroads in her life, Zaghlool said, John and Audrey Kasak are what every orphan needs - someone to be there like a family would. John Kasak shrugged as if to deflect her gratitude. "As long as someone is eager and wants to do something, why not help them?" he asked.

Additional Facts Foster care: 
'Aging out' crisis An estimated 24,000 children per year "age out," that is, turn 18 and are released from the child welfare system in the United States. These former foster children face long odds of leading productive lives.

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT 
Within two years of being "emancipated" from the system, one in four former foster children will be in jail. If 48,000 former foster children are within two years of leaving foster care, 12,000 of them will be in or will have spent time in prison.

EDUCATION 
Of those 24,000 cut loose of government care, 70 percent -- or 16,800 -- will have finished high school. Only 13 percent of former foster children attend college, or 2,184. Of those entering college, only 3 percent will graduate, or an even smaller raw number of 66. (Another study shows that 37 percent of former foster children attend some college, but those numbers include people who have grown into middle-age.) 

HOMELESSNESS 
One in five of former foster children will be homeless sometime after age 18. Within the first year, that means the number is 4,800 of 24,000. Females are more likely to move in and out of friends' homes, going from couch to couch. Sources: The Pew Charitable Trusts' "Time for Reform: Aging Our and On Their Own." Casey Family Programs, Orphan Foundation of America, National Foster Care Coalition.

Editorial: Ohio youth aging out of foster care need more help

Editorial: Ohio youth aging out of foster care need more help
Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 20, 2015 

For too long, many youngsters who have aged out of foster care at 18 and gone on to college have floundered, bereft of parents who provide money, moral support and a place to stay during holiday breaks.

Cleveland.com guest columnist Brant Duda wrote recently that he "had to learn how to be an adult in a hurry. Things such as opening a bank account, doing laundry in a laundromat and shopping for food were new experiences for which I had no teacher."

 No one can give former foster-care youth caring parents. But Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland State University, the Ohio legislature and philanthropists are trying to find innovative ways to help college-bound and employed former foster care youth avoid the pitfalls of life after foster care: lack of education, homelessness and crime.

 For instance, Tri-C will mentor former foster care youth this fall in hopes of boosting their graduation rate, thanks to a three-year, $60,000 grant from Ohio Reach, a nonprofit organization that advocates for higher education for those who grew up in foster homes. Tri-C has approximately 1,000 former foster-care youth. 

At CSU, 10 former foster-care youth selected for the $2.3 million Sullivan-Deckard Scholars Opportunity Program will be awarded scholarships for tuition and living expenses, plus on-campus jobs to give them the helping hand they need to graduate. Other Ohio colleges and universities should seek out donations so they can follow CSU's lead, but the legislature could make a big difference in the lives of those who have aged out of the foster care system -- about 1,000 a year in Ohio -- by passing House Bill 50 when it returns from recess in September.

 The bill would allow Ohio to tap into a 2008 federal grant that helps support former foster-care youth up to 21 years old who want to stay with a foster family or move into supervised housing, as long as they are working, attending school or have a documented disability. The state would have to pay a little more than $10 million to create this worthwhile program.

In short, it will take an all-out effort from the Ohio legislature, colleges and charities to help foster-care youth become responsible, gainfully employed adults capable of taking care of their own children. It must be a priority.

Janel's Video

Foster Alumni Voices: Janel Young from OACCA on Vimeo.

Lorain County foster care alumni in the news

Editorial: Youth aging out of foster care could finally get the help they need from Ohio legislators
Cleveland.com Editorial Board, July 08, 2015 

House Bill 50, a sensible measure that would extend foster care up to age 21 and bring Ohio in line with 26 other states and the District of Columbia, died in committee last year. This year it has passed two committees and deserves passage by the Ohio House and Senate.

Currently, most Ohio youngsters in foster care are on their own when they reach 18 and foster-care subsidies end. It's no wonder that these youth are at risk for homelessness, incarceration and human trafficking.

The bill won't offer youth money, but rather an opportunity to stay with a foster family or move into supervised housing as long as they are working, attending school or have a documented disability, said Mark Mecum, chair of Ohio Fostering Connections.

The measure will allow Ohio to take advantage of a 2008 federal grant that gives states matching funds for extending foster care. About 1,000 Ohio youth a year age out of foster care.

The state will have to spend a little more than $10 million to create and implement the program. It's well worth it.

Makkedah's interview in the Columbus Dispatch

Bill would extend foster care 3 years 
Plan hopes for better future to help state’s most vulnerable youth  
Price, Rita, Columbus Dispatch Saturday July 18, 2015  

 If her family life had collapsed in another state, Makkedah Cutshall might still be in foster care. Rent, utility payments and grocery bills wouldn’t yet be causing her anxiety.

“That would be real helpful,” said Cutshall, who aged out of foster care last year at 18. “I’d maybe have a chance to save.”

She has been working with advocates to urge passage of a bill to extend foster-care programs in Ohio to age 21, a change that would offer three more years of assistance to some of the state’s most vulnerable youths.

Supporters had hoped that the bill, which also includes “bill of rights” provisions for wards in guardianship cases, would be approved along with the biennial budget. Now, they’re aiming for action yet this year.

“What’s sad, or perhaps moving, is how many foster teens who have aged out are active in this campaign,” said Mark Mecum, executive director of the Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies. 

“It’s frustrating to get emails from children who ask, ‘Has this passed yet? How can I help?’ ”


Between 1,000 and 1,300 foster youths leave Ohio’s system each year after they turn 18. Staggering numbers of them soon experience homelessness, or become parents, or fall into the justice system. 

About 26 states, along with Washington, D.C., already have extended foster care to 21 or are in the process of passing legislation to do so, Mecum said.

“We need to do better by them,” said Scott Britton of the Public Children Services Association of Ohio. The association, whose members represent the state’s child-welfare systems, supports the legislation, he said.

Sources differ on whether the snag in passage primarily reflects issues with provisions in the guardianship bill of rights, the price tag for extended foster-care programs, or both.

“There is just a reluctance to do anything that is not cost-neutral,” Britton said. “But I think the cost-benefit analysis is compelling in terms of investing upfront and saving money down the line.”

The 2016 startup cost for an extended foster-care program would mean about $550,000 in state money next year, then up to $9.7 million in 2017, depending on whether the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has it fully or partly implemented by then. 

Up to $14.8 million in federal foster-care money also would be budgeted for the program in 2017, for a total of about $24.5 million in state and federal funds that year.

The guardianship portion of the bill would require all guardians to receive a copy of the Ohio Guardianship Guide, and to sign a waiver saying they had received it and the “bill of rights” enumerated in the bill.

State Reps. Cheryl Grossman of Grove City and Dorothy Pelanda of Marysville, Republicans who are co-sponsors, have said the need for new guidelines for guardians became clear following the Dispatch series “Unguarded,” which found widespread problems and exploitation.

Although the guardianship proposal doesn’t create any new rights for wards, some supporters took exception to changes in the wards’ bill of rights that added language “excluding abortion services” and removed language on the “right to vote, if legally able.” Such language doesn’t take away those rights, but it could cause confusion, some advocates say.

“Our position has been we want to see it passed as originally introduced,” said Michael Kirkman, executive director of Disability Rights Ohio. “Any changes have the potential to make unintended consequences.”

Pelanda said she’s confident the bill can be passed this year. She doesn’t think foster care and guardianships should be considered in separate proposals.

“These are two populations that I consider to be voiceless and vulnerable — they share that bond,” she said. “The future of Ohio, and our economy, is fully dependent on the strength of our families."

On that point, Cutshall, now 19, would agree. She’s just trying to figure out how she can get far enough ahead to thrive. She shares a tidy, spare Reynoldsburg apartment with a roommate and dreams of having a car someday. 

For now, she rides her bicycle to the bus stop and then faces a two-hour bus trip (including transfers) to her minimum-wage job on the North Side. “I’m trying not to let myself get down,” she said. “But I would still be with my foster mom if I could.”