Cuyahoga County, with help from a $300,000 grant, plans to improve the ways it guides young people out of foster care and the juvenile-court system and into adulthood.
The project, led by the county’s Department of Health and Human Services, will also assist those with special needs who are receiving county services make their transition to the adult world.
The work will be somewhat unique in that it will not only seek input from young people in the foster-care, court and special-needs systems, it will also pay them for their insights and contributions.
“If we are going to identify areas of improvement, it’s important that these young people have a say because they are the ones getting services, and the people who know best are the people who have lived it,” said Rachel Benders, special projects manager with the county’s health and human services department.
“They can give feedback – good, bad or otherwise – to identify our blind spots and where we are overstating or understating the importance of something,” Benders said.
The $300,000 grant came from Youth Villages, a Memphis-based organization that helps children with emotional, mental and behavioral problems in 27 states, including Ohio. Youth Villages seeks solutions to these problems and strengthens support systems for those it serves.
“I have not worked with Youth Villages before but they are very passionate and committed,” Benders said. “They have some very interesting interventions and we want to see if we can adopt some of their programs.”
Sometimes children fall into more than one category as they grow into adulthood. For example, studies have shown that 65-70 percent of children in the juvenile justice system also have a disability, according to a report by The Arc, a national organization that advocates for people with disabilities and their families.
Local data from the Juvenile Division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas (Juvenile Court) Diagnostic Clinic supports this, showing that between August 2022 and July 2023, nearly half of the youth referred for a competency evaluation had a clinical history consistent with developmental disabilities, according to a press release from the Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities and the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court.
Benders, with her team of professionals and young people, will create a strategic plan to upgrade and coordinate transition-to-adulthood services. The process will take about two years, starting later in 2025.
The first step is mapping all existing services and programs already provided by various agencies and organizations. The project will judge their effectiveness and determine if there are gaps in services, and study ways to better coordinate services and programs. Perhaps new programs will be adopted and different agencies added to the flowchart, Benders said.
For example, the team will reach out to the Juvenile Division of the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas; the ADAMHS Board of Cuyahoga County, an independent political organization charged with supporting those suffering with mental illnesses and addictions; and Bridges, an Ohio Department of Job and Family Services agency that helps foster-care children as they become adults.
Meanwhile, the county will look at its own emancipation unit – which prepares foster-care children for adulthood by finding housing for them and connecting them to other resources – and consider how it can perform better and coordinate with other agencies more effectively.
“Our emancipation department already has a great partnership with Bridges but there is always an opportunity to improve communications and be really robust in that planning to make sure young people have individualized plans,” Benders said.
The strategic planning process will involve focus groups, through which young people in the system will share their thoughts and experiences.
“Our young people might say, ‘Hey, I used that service and it didn’t work like you said it would, or I was given the runaround,’” Benders said. “Or they might say that a certain service was excellent. They will let you know. That much I learned working with young people. They won’t hold back.”
Benders said that for young people, or anyone for that matter, connecting to services can be difficult and overwhelming.
“These young people are coming to the world with little or no family, or estranged from family, with very little support,” Benders said. “It can be very challenging getting access.”
“It’s scary,” Benders said. “Collecting documents, calling a number and waiting on the phone can be disheartening and uncomfortable,” Benders said. “Young people might say they were told it would be easy but it wasn’t for them.”
Benders said paying these young people to help write the strategic plan is only fair.
“They are paid consultants,” Benders said. “We value their insight, and we value being told where we may have missed the mark. That helps us do better the next time.”
Young people about to transition from foster care, the juvenile court system or special-needs services to adulthood, or even those who have already done so, can call 216-696-KIDS for help in finding housing and connecting to resources and support programs.
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