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Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I began my career as a Family Court Probation Officer nearly 30 years ago in NY and have dual Masters Degrees in Social Work and Dispute Resolution. I have been in direct services for the majority of my career, primarily working with court-involved and emotionally disturbed adolescents. I have been a Program Coordinator with The Children’s Trust since 2004.

How does the Trust's work address disconnected youth issues?

The Children’s Trust was created by a vote’s referendum in 2002 as a dedicated source of funding to meet the needs of children and families inMiami-Dade County.  We are committed to funding programs that offer the best possible quality services, with goals of implementing best practices. Our annual budget for 2005-06 was 81.5 million dollars. The Children’s Trust primary focus is prevention and early intervention intended to keep children out of the delinquency and dependency systems.

In 2005, The Children’s Trust began an initiative to support all Miami-Dade County youth in achieving successful transitions to adulthood. We began by hiring a large consulting firm to help us design a roadmap -- which illustrated where we were, where we wished to go and how we could get there. Subsequently we began funding services and programs in the community to address youth making successful transitions. These include the funding of Educate Tomorrow, which provides educational mentorship and trains school court counselors on the special needs of foster care and court-involved youth.

We also fund and support  ICanMakeIt.org, a website dedicated to transitioning youth getting local information on services such as education, employment, housing and medical care. It also contains links to a variety of information on areas that apply to youth making successful transitions to independence.

The Trust is in its second year of Lawyers for Children of America, which has created Miami S.H.I.N.E.( Striving High for Independence and Empowerment). This is a group of former and current foster care youth who are promoting the development of an advocacy group to represent the needs of this population. Their photographs currently hang in the office of the State Speaker of the House whom they met with last year.

There have been other Trust supported programs and events addressing the needs of this population and we are in the process of developing summer camp workshops for youth in state supported systems.

How has being involved in YTFG helped you?

Our membership in YTFG has increased our knowledge of issues facing youth in transition and has provided us an opportunity to compare the Trust’s public funding policies with the initiatives of those in the private sector. While most transition to adulthood initiatives focus on the foster care population, the Trust is committed to all children here in Miami-Dade and its focus of funding is directed to all youth coming out of state support systems, not just foster care. This aligns with all the YTFG work groups and their focus on juvenile justice, foster care, and out-of-school youth. 

Membership in YTFG gives us a sense of the political climate that is going on in the rest of the country regarding this issue and helps in terms of The Trust's own planning.

What relationships have you established as a member of YTFG?

If a grantmaker wants to focus on older youth issues, what's the starting point?

If you could choose a policy priority for 2008, as it relates to older youth issues, what would it be?

I would extend jurisdiction for youth in care to age 23. I think that we need to revisit the concept of adulthood in a world far more complex then when those age standards were established. In today’s society 18 isn’t a viable or realistic age to be declared an independent adult.