March 13th Summary Notes
From Voices for Ohio's Children
Contents |
Transitional Youth Preliminary Definition
After a brief welcome and overview, each participant introduced themselves and the organization they were representing.
In small clusters of 3-4, participants reacted to the following working definition of transitional youth.
Transition age youth are described as being between the ages of 16-24 who are experiencing one or more of the following:
- Change of treatment services from children's providers to adult providers
- Change of funding supports
- Re-entry into the community from a juvenile justice facility
- Aging out of the foster care system
- Moving from an education culture to a work culture
- Recognition that the difficulties experienced in childhood will be with them through adulthood
- Homeless/runaway
- Special education needs
- Physical disabilities
- Chronic illness
The definition of transitional youth will provide a guiding framework for this project.
Reaction to the Preliminary Definition
Clusters were asked to respond to this definition according to what stood out to them in the definition, what was missing, and what we still need to know.
What stood out
- There are a myriad of challenges for transitional youth.
- The implication is that transitional youth are system involved.
- Re-entry is larger than the juvenile justice system.
- Treatment services need to be more clearly articulated.
- Special education needs should be understood in the broadest sense.
- The age group specified could be altered to include a younger age bracket.
- We’re talking about children through adults.
What was missing
- We don’t hear the youth voice or their perspective in this definition.
- Youth don’t have a “family backstop”.
- We need training and skill development for employment.
- We don’t know who is making, or can make, decisions for the youth.
- There is hopefulness with youth.
- We don’t have a developmental perspective, either social or psychological.
- There is no reference to sexual orientation/identity issues.
- This is a lack of clarity on “chronic illness” - physical and behavior health?
- Some youth are parents too.
- Youth can recover from some of the issues presented.
- There are challenges in navigating the systems and available supports.
- There can be/is a positive preparation process.
What we need to know
- What’s available and how is it accessed?
- What do youth think?
- Who is our focus?
- How many youth are we talking about?
- A status report on what’s being done or has been done, both locally and state-wide.
- How do we meet youth where they are with desired outcomes?
- What are the specifics of the population?
- What are the barriers of the support systems? Are there policy implications?
- What do we already know?
- What do youth do to support/help themselves?
- What happens to this project after 3-4 meetings?
Assumptions Identified
The participants also identified assumptions that may underlie the definition and the project itself.
- The definition assumes that the youth have completed their education.
- The definition is deficit-based.
- Youth will recognize that these issues will affect them in adulthood.
- This transition is difficult for all people.
- The youth in this population are all “screwed up” – and this is false.
- Multiple populations are covered in the definition, and different populations of transitional youth have different needs.
- Youth are resilient, and one goal is to build resiliency in the youth.
- Schools are not doing life skills training anymore.
- We assume that youth want these services, but they may not.
Desired Goals and Outcomes
Based on this preliminary, foundation-building conversation, participants then identified desired goals and outcomes for this project. Participants first worked individually to identify goals/outcomes and challenges. The entire list of ideas follows this meeting summary. Participants chose to share especially salient or desirable outcomes for the whole group to hear.
Desired outcomes
- A commitment to address policy issues and barriers
- Connections/networking
- Awareness of available programs and resources
- Focus on 2 populations and run a pilot program for
- 1 group of youth with few special needs
- 1 group of youth with significant special needs
- Build resilient young people
- Create a collaborative system of success – preparation and on-going development for prevention
- Transition center – 1 access point for youth
- New case management system
Major challenges identified
- Policy barriers
- Building a transition center
- Unrealistic expectation of adults
- Fuzzy guardianship issues
- Building strategic alliances
- Trust
- Loss of enthusiasm for the group effort
- Fear of youth and criminalization of behavior
- Generate PR that’s positive
- Engage youth
- Sustain support and involvement of champions
- Culture change is necessary in both the adult and child systems
- Money – how much is needed and where will it come from?
Conclusion
The meeting concluded with the announcement of next steps. Doug Smith and Marcy Levy Shankman will conduct research to answer questions raised regarding what is happening locally as well as what is happening nationally. A wiki will be set up to enable participants to access summary materials and contribute on line to the discussion.
The next meeting will focus on sharing the results of the research and discussing implications for the purposes of this project.
Next meeting will be announced based on the date most amenable to participants’ calendars.
Summary Notes From Other Meetings
Please click on the links below to view that meetings summary notes
April 27th Summary Notes
June 4th Summary Notes
July 24th Summary Notes
