The Youth Empowerment Program went to Washington DC to talk to the 15 Ohio Congressman, both Ohio Senators and Senator Kennedy from Massachusetts, about issues that were affecting homeless children and youth in Ohio. It was a lot of work because Shanea and I had to come up with the Agendas for the trip, the food list, the room arrangements, the car agendas and make folders that had all the info the youth needed such as maps, contact info, and the issue overviews. We also had to make the folders that were given to the Legislators and wrote the Thank you cards. We put so much work into the trip cause we both believe in the issues and why we needed to be there.

The trip it self was not luxurious it was 10-hour ride with 17 people between 2 vans and a car. That means 6-7 people in the van and it was hot and long. But like I said before we didn’t have to go but we did go because we really do believe in the issues. The first day we were interviewed by a woman who was doing a documentary on youth advocates. Later on we went sightseeing and saw the Iwo-Jima memorial. The next day (Tues.) was the big day! We took the subway to the Capitol Building and split up into 3 groups to go to our meetings. We had meetings straight through for the entire day.

“I wasn’t nervous I was exited and motivated to talk as much as possible and get my voice heard even though it was my second time there. It was still kind of surreal that me an 18 yr old girl from Ohio that just graduated from high school (07!) could just stroll in to the house of Congress and tell them to work on our issues. I know people say you can do whatever you put your mind to but you don’t believe it until something like this happens. At first I felt like I was intruding because they are these big powerful people but the thing is they are there to work for us we elected them so they should do what is right for us and fix issues that are affecting people in our community,” Alwiyah, an 18 year old from Columbus, says.

“As for me it was a very enlightening experience I couldn’t believe that lil’o me would be in the same building as very powerful people,” Says Shanea, 17 from Columbus, OH. “When I got to the first meeting I was sooooo nervous I only said two words! But then I saw how it easy it was for everyone else to open up and that motivated me to open up during the rest of the meetings. After I started being myself I figured out that the Legislators are just normal people who happened to have really good jobs.”

When we were done with the meetings we went to the Vietnam memorial and the Lincoln Memorial and reflected on how the times have changed from the days of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and how far we’ve come. The last day we were there was our time no meetings, media or nervousness. We went to the Natural History Museum and Holocaust museum after the museums some of us went to the vendors to buy souvenirs then we started our trip back home exhausted and satisfied with what we had accomplished.

I am finally working and going to school, and I am trying to get done by May (2007). My advice to other youth in my situation, is to keep your head up, live day to day and don’t never give up and never let anyone tell you no or your can’t!"

Ciera, age 17

From Pain to Healing
Written by Terrance Dunn - 1/30/06

In 1995, I used to live in Columbus, Ohio. I was in a behavior program called the Behavior Program Club (BPC); it was for kids under the age of ten who had trouble behaving. There were many kids who had ADD or ADHD, who were hyperactive children. They would always talk out loud or get out of their seats when they weren’t supposed to. I was in this program for about three months. In school, my teachers considered me badly behaved and my mother also thought my behavior was unpleasant. They figured that by putting me in this program it would help mold me into someone acceptable. I really didn’t feel that playing games all day and riding around town continuously was productive in the attempt to help build my emotional and social construction.
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Cincinnati, Age 17
"I had left my house one summer night because my parents could not accept who I was. I was a lesbian. I spent 2 days on the run and then I turned myself in to the cops. They took me to 20/20 and then to the Lighthouse YCC. I spent 2 and 1/2 weeks there, trying desperately to fix things with my parents. I loved my girlfriend, but my parents couldn't understand. There were many screaming fights on the phone and they came to visit, which wasn't much better. I had felt torn, broken, and completely lost. The staff took me under their wings and helped me become strong. Soon after I went home, and things were hard, very hard. But one morning I awoke and my mom told me she wanted to meet my girlfriend. I almost collapsed. But ever since that day things have been better here than they ever have been. My mom and I are closer now than ever before."

At first the plan was perfect; but then I was raped and I could no longer function as a normal college student and had to leave college. To make a long story short I ended up on the street I went downtown to the welfare office to ask for help and no one could help me and so they sent me some where else and basically they told me that because I was not a drug addict or fresh out of jail there was not a whole lot that they could do for me and they gave me a bus ticket and told me to try some where else.

The thing that got me about the situation was that everyone kept asking my why didn't just go home and I had to kept telling them that I had no home to go to but in the end I ended up going to my mother who at the time was homeless but she didn't call it that because she had a roof over her head, the place had no hot water or lights and it was a crack rooming house. She showed me how to go to the different places to get a meal and how to go to the Ameri-Temps to make money so that I could fine some place to live for real. So I would go to work at night so that I would not have to be around the crack heads and sleep during the day, because crack heads sleep during the day and they are up all night.

My mother stayed around long enough to show me the ropes of being homeless, she even told me about another rooming house that was a hundred fifty dollars a month with light and gas, all I had to do was get the money and she would talk to the land lord and I could have the room right next to hers and that is when she left me in that house by myself and I had to stay there till I got the money working through Ameri-Temps.

I only made thirty dollars a night, out of that I had to eat at least once a day and catch the bus to and from work, so it took me a while to get the money to move and when I did that house was not much better then where I was. In some ways it was worse it had ton of roaches and a whole lot of mice. I stayed there for three years until my low income housing came through. The really sad part about the story is that it took a crack head to teach me how to find food and shelter instead of the people who get paid to do it and now I try to give back by helping others in the same situation by helping them, just like my mother the crack head did."

They move us around from home to home and think that were going to be OK. When I was in an group home my social worker promised me that she would come out there just about twice a week. I know that social workers are busy with their cases, but she promised me this and she only showed up about twice the whole time I was there and I was there for a year and a half, she didn't call or anything, I felt she didn't care about me. But I have to admit that this system isn't all that bad, I have had only had two social workers that have kept there promises to me. They call me to see how I'm doing just about every week or so. Us foster kids the only thing that most of us ask is that our social worker's keep there promise to us and that they shouldn't make promises that they couldn't keep. This is a shame that only two of my foster parent's are not in foster care for the money but because they love to work with children they wanted to help.

This system needs to think about the kids and how they feel about getting moved from home to home. I know that I don't like it or didn't like it, just because we can be attached to our foster family and they make them leave because their birth parents want them after about 10 years they decide to get there act together. I think that us kids and teenagers should have some say so about what goes on in our life and with our future. The system should not always make those types decisions for us.

Some things that the system should do to make sure the kids are happy is: When it is time for the kids to move into another home you should let the kids visit there for about an month so the kids and the foster family can get to know the kid and so that the kid will get know the foster home and environment. I think doing it this way makes it easy on the kids. Some other things that the system can do is to try to keep all the siblings together and make sure that they keep in touch and make visit just about every other weekend. You all can talk to the children more about what they want and what they want out of life. Well I hope that you all have listened to what an real life foster child has said about the system I hope that you will do something about it. That you for listening and have an nice day."

I ran into a friend of my family and told her what was happening. I asked her not to say anything to them, but she felt they should know. I stayed one night with the friend who came to get me. I stayed one night with my mother after I contacted her about the situation. I stayed in Michigan with my bother for two weeks, but had no clue where I was going to go upon my return to Ohio. I almost felt like I couldn't ask my mom to take me back after everything I had put her through. I ended up living with my mom, but during the time I was bouncing around from place to place I had a huge feeling of instability because I didn't know where I would end up next. I was very upset because I hadn't had a stable home for those last six months that had passed. Not knowing whose couch I'd be crashing on next was very hard for me to think about.

When my school found out I was no longer allowed to attend. I had to leave my friends and go to a school that I do not like. I was in special academic programs at my old school that they don't have at my new school. After going there my whole life I just wanted to graduate with my friends. I am now almost 18 and I work 40 or more hours per week and go to school. I am trying to get my own place back in my old district so I can graduate with my friends."

They had homework but I never had to do any homework because I wasn’t in school. I liked my school. I was angry that I couldn't go to school to see my teachers and friends. I wanted to stay at my school but they wouldn’t let me just because I didn’t have my own house. Now we are not allowed to stay at my grandmas anymore and we have to stay with other friends. If I had to I would take a bus to go to my old school. I miss it."

There have been people in this shelter talking to me, to help me get a better understanding on education and how bad I need it, to get anywhere in life. I also need a positive attitude because if I continue the way that I have been conducting myself I fear I'll be living here for the rest of my life. I thank all the staff members in Harbor Lights that shared a positive message to lead me in the right direction also the residents. So I'd like to end this letter off by saying I am Knowledge and Knowledge is me in the best way I'm going to allow it."

"I was born in Somalia, a country in east Africa. My father died when I was young. In 1991, a civil war broke out in my country. At that time I was in elementary school, but I never had a chance to go to middle school. The war kept growing and spreading to many places in the country. In the middle of 1992 we decided to leave the country after we suffered from hunger and security problems. We fled to the neighboring country, Kenya.

In Kenya, we lived in a refugee camp under the United Nations. In the campus, life was so hard that I had to work by selling foods and candy to support my family, though all those things happened to me they never kept me from continuing my school and my dream of one day going to college and getting a higher education. In 1998, I came to the United States as a refugee and that was the first time I had been in an English speaking country.