Advocacy by current and former foster youth and our allies.

1. Youth Ombudsman Office Advocacy Campaign
Information Session for Advocates

2. Agenda
What is a Youth Ombudsman Office and Why does it Matter to Ohio
How did we get here today?
The State Operating Budget Process
Overview of our Advocacy campaign
Strategic Sharing
How you can get involved
Q&A

3. What is a
Foster Youth
Ombudsman
Office?

4. What is the
role of an
Ombudsman’s
Office?
• Handle and investigate complaints from citizens and families
related to government services for children and families - this may
include child protective services, foster care, adoption and
juvenile justice services.
Handle and investigate
• Provide a system accountability mechanism by recommending
system-wide improvements to benefit children and families -
often in the form of annual reports to the Legislature, Governor
and public.
System Accountability
• Protect the interests and rights of children and families - both
individually and system-wide.
Protect
• Monitor programs, placements and departments responsible for
providing children's services - which may include inspecting state
facilities and institutions
Monitor
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures

5. Types of Ombudsman Offices
Independent and Autonomous
• Exists outside of a state agency that provides children and family services
• Operates with independence, impartiality, and confidentiality, and have a credible review process
• Typically established by the Legislature
Operates within, but autonomous of, the state agency providing child welfare services
• Established by statute
• Director appoints and sets budget
Non-Independent Children’s Ombudsman office, established within the child welfare agency
• The Director of the agency typically oversees the office and sets policy guidelines
County or Program-based
• Receive and help resolve complaints in a non-adversarial way. There typically is not an annual report and may lack the
ability for system accountability
Source: National Conference of State Legislatures

6. Creating a Youth Ombudsman Office
through HB 110 will protect children and
teens by empowering them to self-report
abuse and following up with an
independent investigation

7. Key Desired Components
Independent Dedicated Authority Resources Responsive
Placed outside
children’s services
state and local
agencies
A dedicated toll-free
number and office
designed for foster
youth and not combined
with a service for foster
parents
Power to hold people
and systems
accountable to create
change
Refers youth to
resources in addition
to investigation and
resolution services
Starts a relationship
with youth who seek
help and communicates
regularly about
the status

8. Current and former foster youth must be involved in design
to emphasize youth-centered service delivery
Population Served Proposed Location
Daily Operations Requests of Ohio Legislators
• Youth experiencing abuse in bio, foster, adoptive, kinship,
respite, residential and group home placements
• This office needs to be youth-specific, and separate from
whatever mechanism is established to support foster
caregivers
• Independent and autonomous agency with oversight specific
to child welfare
• Not part of the state’s division of child and family services
• Possessing regulatory powers
• Youth-centered
• Available statewide for youth to reach out and share concerns
related to their safety and well being
• Independent investigations taking place within a speedy
timeframe
• To earmark funding for this office as part of HB 110 provisions
• To clarify that it be created through a procurement process,
and that the requests for proposals should be designed by
current and former foster youth, and that proposals scored
by them
• To ensure that this office is designed by and for foster youth

9. How did we get here today?
Governor DeWine took office in
January 2019. One of his campaign
promises was to establish an
Ombudsman Office. Foster care
youth and alumni submitted
recommendations for this office in
January 2019.
Jan. 2019 Nov. 2019 –
Jan. 2020
2021
Jan. – Nov. 2020
Early 2019
Governor DeWine signed an
Executive Order elevating the priority
of children services within ODJFS. He
established a “Children’s Services
Transformation Advisory Council”
that consist of 21 members including
former foster youth.
.
The Advisory Council led 10 regional
community foster care forums
throughout the state. After COVID-19
hit, ACTION Ohio and the OHIO YAB
held a virtual forum and invited
members of the council to attend.
In February, the Executive Budget highlights
$1 million to create an Ombudsman Office.
The budget also authorized ODJFS to
establish a Foster Youth Bill of Rights by
Administrative Rule. In April, the House
passed HB 110 without specific language to
the creation of the Ombudsman Office.
The Advisory Council broke into
working groups to develop
recommendations. They published a
final report with 37 recommendations,
including a statewide Ombudsman.

10. How a Bill
Becomes State Law
07
06
05
04
03
02
01 08
Governor
Signs
or Vetoes
Floor
Debate
Hearings
House
or Senate Hearings
Floor
Debate
Senate
or House
Bill is
proposed

11. Every two years, the Ohio
General Assembly must pass a
balanced state operating
budget.
The Governor presents an
Executive Budget to the Ohio
General Assembly
• The Executive Budget includes
agency recommendations
The state operating budget is
often a mechanism used to
implement new policy
The Ohio House Finance
Committee breaks up into
sub-committees to review the
budget and to hear testimony
from proponent, interested,
and opposition parties.
The Ohio House Finance
Committee amends the
budget bill and sends it to the
floor of the Ohio House.
The Ohio House votes to
adopt the budget and sends it
to the Ohio Senate
The Senate Finance
Committee reviews the
budget and hears testimony
The Senate Finance
Committee amends the
budget and sends to the floor
of the Senate
The Senate adopts the
amended budget
There is a Conference
Committee that resolves
differences between the
House and Senate version
Budget bill is sent to the
Governor’s office to be
enacted by June 30th
State Operating Budget Process
FY 2022-2023 – Deadline is June 30th

12. State
Operating
Budget Bill
The Ombudsman office was highlighted in the Executive
Budget
HB 110 includes the $1 million appropriation under
Department of Jobs and Family Services “Program
Operations” ALI 600450
• The agency has complete discretion on how they spend funds allocated
to Program Operations line item.
HB 110 does not include any language regarding the
creation of the Ombudsman office.
HB 110 also calls for the DJFS to create a Foster Youth Bill of
Rights by Administrative Rule

13. Two
Pathways
Forward
1 Find a champion in the Ohio Senate
to amend HB 110 (the state operating
budget bill) to include statutory
language to create and implement the
foster youth ombudsman office
2. Find champion (s) in both the House
and Senate to draft a standalone bill

14. Importance of staying engaged to ensure that the Ombudsman Office
is youth-focused and able to independently investigate

15. Which one or two puzzle pieces
from your personal story fit best
with the goal of your testimony?
If questions are too personal, you can
redirect to statistics or say, “Thank you
for your question, but that is not what
I came to talk about today.”
Write out your message ahead of time,
share your draft with others for input,
and practice beforehand.
Self-disclosure is like clothing, we don’t want to be over-exposed
in public. We don’t want the stories we share to backfire, and
negatively impact us, or harm our personal or professional
relationships.
For our voices to be heard, our messages to
be effective and our well-being to be
protected.
Personal stories are memorable and
compelling. They put a face to issues
and can inspire change and influence
public policy.
As you are thinking about what to share…
Handling questions
Benefits of sharing
-
-
Preparation
Desired outcome
Risks to avoid
Puzzle pieces

16. Strategic
Sharing
What is your main message?
Can you utilize a part of your
personal story to support your
message?
Did you carefully choose which
parts of your story to share,
and which not to share?

17. Writing effective legislative testimony

18. Sample Testimony Framework:
Thank Them for Listening (Name of Committee and specific legislators), thank you so much for
taking the time to listen to my testimony regarding HB 110 today.
Population
and Prevalence
Youth experiencing abuse in bio, foster, adoptive, kinship, respite,
residential and group home placements
Current Failure
and Personal Example
Children teens are not being adequately protected. When they reach out
for help, their concerns are not listened to.
Proposed Solution Youth Ombudsman Office, separate from any mechanism to support
foster parents. Able to operate independently to investigate youth
concerns. Designated by an RFP, to be scored by former foster youth.
Personal Story How this Office could have helped me and/or someone I love.
Story of Now The risk of not making this Office happen is that more youth will
experience ongoing abuse, which can even lead to loss of life.
Story of Us Thank you for caring about this. I trust and believe that every person in
this room wants to keep children and teens from being abused. They
deserve protection.

19. How we are advocating
for the Youth Ombudsman Office
H.B.
110
Let Others Know
Spread the word!
Information Session
Participating in a future
Zoom to learn more
.
Drafting Testimony
Ongoing until state budget
is finalized on June 30
Advocacy Campaign
We can assist with edits
to ensure effectiveness
and Strategic Sharing
Legislative Visits
Most of which are being
held virtually
Issue Brief
To outline the desired
parameters of this Office
State Comparisons
Lessons Learned from
other states
News
Upcoming press release and
previous Letter to Editor
How you can help in making
this goal a reality:

20. Alumni of Care Together Improving Outcomes Now Ohio (ACTION Ohio) is
dedicated to improving outcomes for current and former foster care youth.
“We bring together the voices of youth, alumni and allies to create lasting change and generate
hope for current and former foster youth, based on access to resources, ally support and alumni
expertise.”

21. • The Overcoming Hurdles in Ohio Youth Advisory Board
(OHIO YAB) is a statewide organization of young people
(aged 14-24) who have experienced foster care.
• We exist to be the knowledgeable statewide voice that
influences policies and practices that impact youth who
have or will experience out of home care.

22. CDF-Ohio is a statewide non-profit organization which serves as an independent voice for
all children.
Our mission is to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start and
a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and
communities.
We work to champion policies and programs that lift children out of poverty, protect them
from abuse and neglect, and ensure quality education as well as appropriate and targeted
access to resources to meet children’s health and nutrition needs.