2016 OHIO YAB Retreat

1. Ohio YAB Officers Retreat
Saturday, January 9, 2016
716 Mt. Airyshire Blvd., Suite 100,
Columbus, OH 43235

2. OHIO YAB Retreat Schedule
10:00 am – 10:15 am, Welcome and Icebreakers
10:15 am – 10:30 am, Oath of Office for Ohio YAB Officers
10:30 am – 11:00 am, Progress on OHIO YAB Strategic Plan
11:00 am – Noon, Brainstorming to Move Forward in 2016
BREAK for LUNCH
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm, Statewide and Federal Advocacy in 2016
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Communication Strategies in 2016
3:00 pm – 4:00 pm, Additional Business of the Board

3. • We exist to be the knowledgeable statewide
voice that influences policies and practices
that effect all youth who have or will
experience out of home care.
OHIO YAB Mission

4. 2016 Ohio YAB Officers
• President Gabriel Young, Mahoning County
• Vice President Michael Bolwaire, Cuyahoga County
• Media Spokesperson Kyley Magee, Miami County
• Treasurer Melissa Stroud, Ashtabula County
• Parliamentarian Re'Shawn Magby, Mahoning County
• Secretary Gabrielle Walker, Miami County

5. Professionalism
Flip Chart:
How do YOU want the
OHIO Youth Advisory Board
(and foster youth in general)
to be represented by officer
professionalism?

6. Social media
Flip Chart:
How do YOU want the
OHIO Youth Advisory Board
(and foster youth in general)
to be represented on social media?

7. Social media Don’t post anything about your employer unless
you are sure that it is your company policy.
 Don’t post photos that are inappropriate.
Although your profile may be private, there is
always a way that information can be accessed
by others.
 Don’t accept those that you don’t know.
 Don’t take it personally if recruiters or HR
professionals from organizations do not accept
you as connections…they may draw a line with
candidates.
 Don’t post any updates that you are not
comfortable with all future employers seeing.
 Post any inaccurate information about prior jobs.
Consider this to be a public resume and ensure
that everything can be validated.
 Reach out to someone you don’t know and use
a mutual connections name without checking
with them first.
 Ensure that your Facebook page is private.
Often times your profile is set up so that friends
within friends or group members can see your
information.
 Scrutinize what you and your friends post
on your pages.
Consider modifying your settings so that you have to
approve posts. You never know what someone is
going to write on YOUR wall.
 Google yourself.
Make sure that the results that come back are
favorable. If they aren’t go through the process to
try to get these removed. You want to make sure
that your first impression is as positive as possible.
 Manage pictures and tags.
Pictures say a thousand words. Ensure that your
pictures communicate an image that you what you
want to say.
 Get involved with media.
Newspapers, magazines, local TV is a great way to
be positively exposed. It always sounds like a good
idea to be interviewed by the local news, just make
sure the topic is neutral.

8. Oath of Office
• I (STATE YOUR NAME), hereby on my own accord and conscience
am prepared to take the oath of office for the OHIO Youth Advisory
Board.
• I pledge and/or promise to uphold the constitution, bylaws and
governing rules of the Ohio Youth Advisory Board until such time
that I am no longer an officer of the board.
• I pledge and/or promise to fulfill the duties of the office of (STATE
YOUR OFFICE) to the best of my ability.
• I also pledge/or promise, to the best of my ability, to advocate,
defend, and promote the ideals and general welfare of all foster,
transition, and independent youth for the State of OHIO.

9. OYAB Moving Forward in 2015:
Outreach and Policy
1. Develop and share OHIO YAB
outreach materials so that youth
advisory board involvement can be
promoted throughout the state.
2. Continue to ensure that youth voice
is included in statewide discussions
of policy and practice.
3. Focus on outreach, in order to
promote the establishment and
ongoing development of county and
regional youth advisory boards.

11. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Housing
1. Work with local and statewide partners to create the
housing tools requested by youth in 2014.
2. Support the establishment of new transitional housing
options, and promote youth awareness of existing
resources.
3. Recommend that ODJFS develop a transition plan that is
specifically for housing, and includes a Plan B in case the
first option falls through.
4. Raise awareness that foster care youth who emancipate
from foster care without a savings account are likely to
age out directly into homelessness.

12. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Education
1. Identify and develop a pool of foster care alumni to
serve as spokespeople to encourage today’s teens to
consider post-secondary education, and create a list of
panel questions that can be used in conferences.
2. Meet with the Ohio Department of Education and
develop a vision for foster youth to graduate high school
and go to college.
3. Work with partners to follow up on youth
recommendations to improve educational outcomes.
4. Promote best practices for custodial agencies to support
foster care youth and alumni’s educational success.
5. Expand focus to include a high school pilot project.

13. OYAB Moving Forward in 2015:
Youth Voice in Court
1. Partner with Ohio CASA to
develop and promote tools to
support youth voice in court.
2. Explore ways to better inform
and empower youth to
understand and navigate the
court system.

14. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Independent Living, Part 1
1. Ensure youth voice on the
development of a future statewide
independent living curriculum to
ensure that it:
- includes hands-on activities
- begins with a pilot
- includes youth feedback
throughout the process
- allows agencies to customize the
order in which material is provided
according to the immediate needs of
youth

15. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Independent Living, Part 2
2. Advocate for youth to be allowed to begin
independent living preparation as early as age 13, and
for emancipated youth to be allowed to return for
refresher courses.
3. Seek partners to assist in the creation of an online
Independent Living Clearinghouse to share resources to
help youth during their transition to adulthood.
4. Advocate for a review of how training related to IL is
delivered to foster parents and caseworkers and
experienced by youth.

16. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Workforce
1. Explore the possibility of
Individual Development
Accounts (IDAs) as a resource
for emancipating youth.
2. Seek to overcome barriers for
teens in foster care establishing
a savings account.

17. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Ohio YAB Initiatives
1. Continue to develop
and seek to pilot the
three-tiered
mentoring model.
2. Seek partners to
continue to develop
the Ohio Pride
initiative.

18. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Areas That Still Need to be Addressed

19. Lunch Break

20. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Statewide and Federal Advocacy
Opportunities
1. ODJFS All-Staff
Meeting on June 2,
2016
2. Supporting Violet
with her work on the
National Foster Care
Youth and Alumni
Policy Council

21. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Ongoing Communication
1. Maintaining Ongoing
Contact Between
OYAB Officers
2. Outreach and
Encouragement to
County/Regional
Youth Advisory
Boards

22. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Ongoing Communication
1. Maintaining Ongoing
Contact Between
OYAB Officers
2. Outreach and
Encouragement to
County/Regional
Youth Advisory
Boards

23. OYAB Moving Forward in 2016:
Continued Work on Toolkits