On Tuesday, June 17, 2024, the OHIO YAB and ACTION Ohio facilitated a Leadership and Life Skills Summit for Current and Former Foster Youth, to inform and empower Ohio teens and young adults with a foster care history (ages 14-24). This event was made possible thanks to the support of the Ohio Children’s Alliance, the Department of Children and Youth, the Dave Thomas Foundation and The Ohana Project.
Youth and young adults from the following counties participated: Allen, Ashland, Athens, Clermont, Cuyahoga, Franklin, Geauga, Hamilton, Lake, Lorain, Lucas, Montgomery, Muskingum, Portage, Richland and Stark.
Link to more photos.
The Summit included a Wellness Area called “Exhale,” designed by Alana, Renee and Raven of the OHIO YAB, to provide a safe space for young people to relax, paint rocks, journal, and learn some yoga and breathing techniques.
As designed by youth, the Wellness Area included fairy lights, an essential oil diffuser, LED Votive Candles, and a Tabletop Water Fountain. Activities included decorating journals, painting rocks and bags to write how youth leaders plan to "exhale" in 2025.
Annie Curtis of Columbus Public Health and Holly Jones, the creator and maintainer of the Wellness Project brought yoga mats, blocks, cushions, speakers to play music, coping skill packets, brochures about healing from trauma, and mindfulness activities for participating youth and young adults. Many thanks to Caidyn, Addison, Alexys and Lori for set-up and support of "Exhale."
The 2025 Summit incorporated the voices and input of current and/or former foster youth. Lisa Dickson served as event organizer, with input from OHIO YAB members. Jamole Callahan and Alexys Rose emceed the event. Caidyn, Addison, Tori and Ruth-Ann assisted with event facilitation.
Director Kara Wente's Opening Remarks reflected DCY's commitment to listen to the insights of young people in and from foster care. Youth participants received shirts as a workshop supply, on which they could write down what they want decision-makers to know. The quote on the back of the shirts came from OHIO YAB Youth Ambassador Yonnae Ase: "Behind every policy maker is a person."
Four OHIO YAB Youth Leadership workshops were facilitated by Alivia Johnson and Talia Holmes. Jaye Turner facilitated two adult workshops on Conscious Connections and two youth workshops on Healthy Relationships. Deanna Jones led two workshops on Exit Plans and one on Building Capacity to Support Teen Parents. Adam Hassan assisted Amanda Davis with the Ohio ETV workshop, and Gabriella Craft helped present the Post Secondary Resources workshop.
This year, we wanted to incentivize youth workshop attendance. This is one day that is designed just for them. Young people received stamps for attending workshops, and were required to attain a certain number of stamps in order to be eligible for the raffle.
We are deeply grateful to The Ohana Project for their support of the Summit by providing AMAZING raffle prizes! These included an Electric Scooter 28-mile range, a 50" 4K Roku Smart TV, an HP Chromebook Touch in Lavender, an HP Chromebook in Silver, an Apple Watch, a Samsung Watch, Beats Headphones, a Beats Pill speaker and more!
Thanks to support from Congregation Beth Tikvah, we had 25 Kitchen Essentials baskets for the raffle, to support transition-age youth. Many thanks to Kristin Camac and Kim Eckhart for helping to store and transport these beautiful baskets, which were initially donated during a Mitzvah Day in April.
Through the Suits for Success Initiative, young people in and from foster care were able to try on and keep professional clothing items. We deeply appreciate help behind the scenes with Suits for Success transportation by the Department of Children and Youth and the Ohio Children's Alliance. Special thanks goes to Velda Hofacker for storing these clothing items and to foster care alumni Dauntea Sledge for
driving the U-Haul van both days.
Finally, we wanted to mention the resource tables that were available during the event. These included: Bridges, DCY, ESSA, ETV, FosterHub, Fostering Achievement Network, The Ohana Project, Ohio Medicaid, Ohio Reach, Trades Institute, Youth Navigator Network, and Youth Ombudsman.
