The Fall newsletter of the Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America is now available...
(Please click on the box on the far right to view at full-size)
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
FCAA Ohio included among State Partners for Ohio's Child Protective System
Over the next three and a half years, the Office will be working in partnership with the Midwest Child Welfare Implementation Center to design and implement this model. An important part of this work is the formation of an Advisory Committee: Partners for Ohio's Families.
The Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America is proud to be a part of this committee as a voting member.
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Investing in the future of Foster Care Youth Advisory Boards in Ohio
- The Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America is proud to volunteer as primary adult facilitator of the Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio statewide foster care youth advisory board.
- We greatly appreciate the support that ODJFS, PCSAO, OHILA, OACCA, OCWTP, county children services agencies and the Supreme Court of Ohio have provided, and continue to provide Ohio foster care youth.
- Recently, Adrian McLemore wrote an article titled: "Honoring Our Beginnings," in which he expressed gratitude and appreciation on behalf of Ohio's foster care youth for the support that the Ohio YAB has received since its inception.
- Now, more than ever, with tight budgets and limited resources, Ohio's emancipating foster care youth NEED support, empowerment and preparation!
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Upcoming Opportunities for Foster Care Youth and Alumni Involvement
YOUTH/ALUMNI PANEL
• July 28, Foster care panel for Capital Law School ICWI in Columbus• Aug. 4, Adoptee panel for Capital Law School ICWI in Columbus
FALL CONFERENCES
• Aug. 11, Southwest Independent Living Summit in Cincinnati• Sept. 24, Judicial College video teleconference in Columbus
• Oct. 2, Youth Panel at Ohio CASA conference in Columbus
• Oct. 29, Northeast Independent Living Summit in Canton
FUTURE STATE ADVOCACY OPPORTUNITIES
• Ready to Launch: Ohio Gubernatorial Campaigns• State budget: Promote use of WIA and ODE funds for transitional foster youth
• OACCA compilation of potential ODJFS budget areas that might be at-risk
• OCOG funds (Demos/Policy Matters Ohio)
OHIO BUDGET PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
• This budget committee is tasked with understanding the magnitude of the budget deficit and to discuss general strategies. • Some of the committee members will be on the House and Senate budget committee in 2011.
• It’s important that committee members are informed about the importance of funding for foster youth.
• Foster care youth and alumni will need to arrange meetings with individual committee members.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Happy Father's Day, Adrian!
Uncle takes on role of dad to keep family together
Wynn, Kelli. Dayton Daily News, June 19, 2010.
Adrian McLemore with his niece and nephew Arayiah McLemore, 3 and Tyiaun Jones, 1, play guitar and sing to Tina Turner in their home in Trotwood. McLemore grew up in Montgomery County’s foster care system. In order to prevent his niece and nephew from becoming wards of the county due to a family crisis, McLemore took custody of the children.
TROTWOOD — In December 2009, Montgomery County officials gave Adrian McLemore two options: Take custody of his sister’s two children or let them enter the foster care system until their mother’s life improved.
McLemore knew that one day he might be faced with this decision given his sister’s background, but hoped this day would not come. The Trotwood resident loves his family and considers himself a brother and uncle who would always come to his family’s rescue in a time of need. But being a full-time surrogate father was not a part of his original life plan. Like his mentors said, this would be a great responsibility for a 23-year-old bachelor enrolled in college and managing a video store.
The decision to take custody of 3-year-old Arayiah and 1-year-old Tyiaun was not about what would interrupt McLemore’s life, but rather stopping the beginning of a family trend. “I refuse to let a second generation of the McLemores be in foster care,” he said.
McLemore, now 24, and his two sisters spent most of their childhood in foster care. They entered the system in Georgia as their mother battled alcoholism. The siblings ended up in Georgia after their mother moved them there from Florida following a divorce from their father in 1992.
The McLemore siblings would not be reunited with their father until 1995. Adrian McLemore was about to be put up for adoption when Ernest McLemore, who was serving in the U.S. Air Force, obtained custody and moved his children to Las Vegas. They lived with their father for two years before he announced that he had received an assignment overseas and gave them the option of moving to Ohio to live with their mother again. The children moved back with their mother, a decision that has Adrian and his older sister Britney McLemore, 24, asking themselves today, “what if?”
All three siblings were in and out of Daybreak, an emergency shelter for runaway and homeless youths, from 1999 to 2000.
At one point, Adrian McLemore did not want to return home, so shelter officials called Montgomery County Children Services, who placed him and his sisters in foster care. Britney and Adrian aged out of the system at age 18, and their younger sister, Devanna, was placed in Britney’s custody once Britney turned 21. At the time, Devanna was pregnant with Arayiah, who would have also become a ward of the county had Devanna remained in foster care.
Meanwhile, Ernest McLemore died in 2004 in Georgia at age 40 after suffering from brain cancer. His children were still in foster care.
Even though his time with his children was short, Ernest McLemore was a big influence. Adrian hopes that all the positive things that he learned from his father will help him while his niece and nephew are in his custody.
One of the messages that McLemore said he hopes his actions will send to Arayiah and Tyiaun is that “a man loves his child no matter what” and provides emotional and financial support for his family.
“I am convinced that I made the right decision based on where they are now — as far as development — compared to where they were the day I picked them up,” he said.
“I love them to death. I want to show them that I am here to play, to hug or discipline... Just to be there.”
Although McLemore’s experience in foster care has been mostly positive, he still said he feels “foster care is no system for children.”
He also didn’t like the idea of his niece and nephew potentially being placed in separate foster homes without a familiar face.
“Having a second generation of our family in foster care is unthinkable to me and I wouldn’t allow it,” he said.
Devanna McLemore, 21, was the one who suggested to county officials in 2009 that her brother take custody of her children. She currently has weekly visits with them and her next custody hearing is scheduled for January.
This year, Father’s Day takes on a whole different meaning to Adrian McLemore. He believes his father would be proud of the decision he made. “I could have continued to do what I wanted to do. But instead, I now do what I have to do.”
Wynn, Kelli. Dayton Daily News, June 19, 2010.
Adrian McLemore with his niece and nephew Arayiah McLemore, 3 and Tyiaun Jones, 1, play guitar and sing to Tina Turner in their home in Trotwood. McLemore grew up in Montgomery County’s foster care system. In order to prevent his niece and nephew from becoming wards of the county due to a family crisis, McLemore took custody of the children.
TROTWOOD — In December 2009, Montgomery County officials gave Adrian McLemore two options: Take custody of his sister’s two children or let them enter the foster care system until their mother’s life improved.
McLemore knew that one day he might be faced with this decision given his sister’s background, but hoped this day would not come. The Trotwood resident loves his family and considers himself a brother and uncle who would always come to his family’s rescue in a time of need. But being a full-time surrogate father was not a part of his original life plan. Like his mentors said, this would be a great responsibility for a 23-year-old bachelor enrolled in college and managing a video store.
The decision to take custody of 3-year-old Arayiah and 1-year-old Tyiaun was not about what would interrupt McLemore’s life, but rather stopping the beginning of a family trend. “I refuse to let a second generation of the McLemores be in foster care,” he said.
McLemore, now 24, and his two sisters spent most of their childhood in foster care. They entered the system in Georgia as their mother battled alcoholism. The siblings ended up in Georgia after their mother moved them there from Florida following a divorce from their father in 1992.
The McLemore siblings would not be reunited with their father until 1995. Adrian McLemore was about to be put up for adoption when Ernest McLemore, who was serving in the U.S. Air Force, obtained custody and moved his children to Las Vegas. They lived with their father for two years before he announced that he had received an assignment overseas and gave them the option of moving to Ohio to live with their mother again. The children moved back with their mother, a decision that has Adrian and his older sister Britney McLemore, 24, asking themselves today, “what if?”
All three siblings were in and out of Daybreak, an emergency shelter for runaway and homeless youths, from 1999 to 2000.
At one point, Adrian McLemore did not want to return home, so shelter officials called Montgomery County Children Services, who placed him and his sisters in foster care. Britney and Adrian aged out of the system at age 18, and their younger sister, Devanna, was placed in Britney’s custody once Britney turned 21. At the time, Devanna was pregnant with Arayiah, who would have also become a ward of the county had Devanna remained in foster care.
Meanwhile, Ernest McLemore died in 2004 in Georgia at age 40 after suffering from brain cancer. His children were still in foster care.
Even though his time with his children was short, Ernest McLemore was a big influence. Adrian hopes that all the positive things that he learned from his father will help him while his niece and nephew are in his custody.
One of the messages that McLemore said he hopes his actions will send to Arayiah and Tyiaun is that “a man loves his child no matter what” and provides emotional and financial support for his family.
“I am convinced that I made the right decision based on where they are now — as far as development — compared to where they were the day I picked them up,” he said.
“I love them to death. I want to show them that I am here to play, to hug or discipline... Just to be there.”
Although McLemore’s experience in foster care has been mostly positive, he still said he feels “foster care is no system for children.”
He also didn’t like the idea of his niece and nephew potentially being placed in separate foster homes without a familiar face.
“Having a second generation of our family in foster care is unthinkable to me and I wouldn’t allow it,” he said.
Devanna McLemore, 21, was the one who suggested to county officials in 2009 that her brother take custody of her children. She currently has weekly visits with them and her next custody hearing is scheduled for January.
This year, Father’s Day takes on a whole different meaning to Adrian McLemore. He believes his father would be proud of the decision he made. “I could have continued to do what I wanted to do. But instead, I now do what I have to do.”
Friday, June 18, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
FCAA Volunteer of the Year Award
Aurand, Lisa. ThisWeek, May 12, 2010.
When Lisa Dickson "aged out" of foster care at 16, she had a myriad of people who became her advocates.
The list included the English teacher who wrote a "rousing" recommendation for her college acceptance, the University of Kentucky admissions counselor who marched her over to financial aid and said, "This girl needs grants," the residents of the Methodist dormitory who became her "family" when she moved in after a year of homelessness.
Now Lisa is fighting for other foster care alumni to have the same chances at success she did.
"The people who were there for me are what motivate me," Dickson said. "All the things that I do now are because of them."
Dickson was named one of four Foster Care Alumni of America Volunteers of the Year in this, the awards' first year. She was a founding member of the group, and is the communications chair for its Ohio Chapter.
She was in foster care in Kentucky from ages 12 to 16 after her mother died, and was able to start classes at the University of Kentucky at age 16.
By 17, Dickson was homeless, but still attending college. It wasn't until she was 18 that she began living in the Methodist dormitory. She tried five different majors and was in college for 10 years, finishing by earning a master's degree in library science.
She was offered a job in Columbus in 1999, met and married her husband, Nathan Dickson, in 2000. They moved to Westerville in 2001, where they live with his two daughters, Rachel, 19, and Carly, 17.
Dickson, a Children's Librarian, said she spends about 40 hours a week volunteering for FCAA. The local chapter focuses on assisting the approximately 1,300 Ohio youths who age out of foster care each year.
"The top two things we do are connect and transform," she said.
The group helps foster care alumni connect with other former foster children, wherever they live.
For the past several years, the group has hosted an annual Thanksgiving dinner, an event that began when foster alumni from all over the country met in Washington, D.C., to talk to federal legislators about federal child welfare financial reform.
"We said we were coming home for the holidays," Dickson said.
The "transform" part of the group's mission involves lobbying on behalf of foster children making the transition to life on their own. Dickson was one of several foster care alumni who testified in front of the state legislature last year, asking members not to cut funding for programs that teach older foster care children how to live on their own.
Though the funding was approved by the Ohio House of Representatives and Senate, it was vetoed by Gov. Ted Strickland, Dickson said. But one good thing came out of that news: Dickson and a few of her colleagues were asked to be part of Strickland's Taskforce for Youth and Young Adults in Transition.
The two biggest needs for fosters in transition are housing and health insurance, Dickson said.
"One in four homeless adults is a former foster," she said.
Even those who end up going to college still struggle with housing and finances, she said.
"Most college kids, when they have (financial) trouble, they call mom and dad. But there is no mom and dad to call (for foster children)," Dickson said.
And though the recently passed federal health care bill will eventually mandate insurance for former fosters, that coverage won't take effect until 2014, she said.
Dickson, who recently was engaged as FCAA's volunteer social media coordinator, said she won't stop her quest to help fosters the way others helped her.
"I love the kicking-butt part and trying to make a difference," she said. "(The people who helped me) were there for me and cared for me. I want that for everyone."
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