Rays of hope for young people who need family support

A new state website featuring profiles of children available for adoption is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Anything to make potential forever families aware of the 3,000-plus Ohio children permanently removed from their parents is welcome, but the idea of displaying them like Amazon offerings is uncomfortable.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has split the difference by not including photographs of the children. Instead, the profiles include images meant to give an idea of each child’s strengths, interests and talents — favorite foods, animals and activities, for example.

The website, available through JFS at www.fosterandadopt.jfs.ohio.gov, is the state’s third version of a matching service for children and adoptive parents. An earlier site maintained by the state lost its funding in 2008, when state government suffered massive cuts in the Great Recession. Capital University stepped in after that with a site that operated for about a decade, but the state ended it last year.

Leaving photographs out of the initial impression is intended to shield already-hurting children from the potential blow of knowing that they were viewed and found wanting.

The need for adoptive families is urgent and growing. Nationwide, more than 125,000 children are in the permanent custody of child-welfare agencies and in need of permanent homes. That’s a jump of 17% over the past year — an increase due in large part to the damage wreaked by the opioid epidemic.

The state-run website will be especially helpful to smaller counties that lack the resources to do extensive outreach on behalf of their adoptable kids. Ohio’s Appalachian counties, especially hard hit by opioid addiction, should benefit especially. Tammy Osborne-smith director of the Jackson County Department of Job and Family Services, hopes the state site will make all the difference for the children in her county’s care.

“It allows families to relate, just by reading the profiles,” she said. “Hopefully, it’s a great place for families to start.”

We wish this effort great success. But for the thousands of vulnerable, unparented children who reach age 18 without being adopted by supportive families, we are deeply appreciative of the work done by Star House, Huckleberry House, Community Housing Network and others working to give a decent chance at successful independence for young people whose parents did not or could not care for them after they age out of foster care.

Community Housing Network recently celebrated the opening of Marsh Brook Place, a 40-unit apartment complex designed to help people ages 18 to 24 who have struggled with homelessness, addiction and other challenges that can put stability, not to mention prosperity, out of reach.

Soon-to-be tenants like 21-year-old Emmanuel Kendrick are thrilled with the idea that they will have a safe, secure place to stay, with private space and shared kitchens.

But it’s essential that Marsh Brook Place, funded with $9 million in public and private money, also will have on-site staff and supportive services to help Kendrick and other young adults navigate a world for which they’ve been given little preparation.

Consider how much help the average new highschool graduate would need to thrive with no help from family, and then imagine if that young person had been living on the streets for a year or three.

As central Ohio wrestles with intractable homelessness, we hope to see more such projects that offer young people a ladder out before their challenges become insurmountable.

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