COLUMBUS, Ohio – An innovative program that helps heal Ohio families torn apart by addiction is expanding once again.

The Public Children Services Association of Ohio oversees the Ohio START program; START stands for "Sobriety, Treatment, and Reducing Trauma."

It was launched in 2017 to tackle the rising number of kids in need of foster care. According to Program Director Fawn Gadel, the program focuses on both the parents' and child's trauma.

"We take a holistic approach to treating the family for the issues that have come to arise because of the parents substance use disorder, which really is a game-changer," Gadel said.

Family Peer Mentors make up a key aspect of the program, as people who have personal experience with addiction and children's services, and are now in long-term recovery.

As a Family Peer Mentor in Pickaway County, Sarah Rapp knows that she offers a unique perspective on how addiction drives behaviors and decisions.

"It doesn't mean that they don't love their kids, it doesn't mean that they don't want to change," Rapp said, "but how to do it, and how not to judge them so hard to where they just want to give up."

Ohio START is expanding to 14 more counties, bringing the number to 46. State leaders expect to expand the program to a total of 62 counties in the next two years.

As state attorney general, Gov. Mike Dewine helped bring the program to Ohio, and continues to support and fund its expansion.

Gadel said getting parents into treatment quickly is the first step on the road to recovery.

"We strike while the iron's hot, giving the parent the most amount of time that they can have to get those recovery services underway," she explained, "and continuing on until they are healthy, and a safe option for those kids, is really making a difference."

Rapp added that she's looking forward to mentoring more people as her first client graduates from the program.

"It just means a lot when you can help somebody make a total change in their lives," Rapp said. "She has her kid back, she has a job, she's getting housing. She's really doing good."

Ohio START has served nearly 900 adults and 390 children since 2017. The program receives a national award today (Wednesday) from the Addiction Policy Forum at a ceremony at the Statehouse.

As the year comes to an end, one event aims to help high schoolers in Arizona learn how to better manage their money. The "Bite of Reality" fairs across the West engage high schoolers by assigning them a persona and students then having to create a budget accordingly.

Sarae Bay, assistant vice president and manager director with the GoWest Foundation, said her organization works with credit unions in Arizona and help sponsor the fairs. She said the exercise is an opportunity for young people to "experiment and make mistakes with finances in a realistic but safe environment."

"They complete a 90 minute budgeting exercise, and it really helps give students a realistic look at money management by updating their budgets in real time to see the true impact of their everyday as well as planned purchases and expenses," she said.

Bay added participants' fictional persona will include an occupation, salary, credit score, possible spouse and child and debt among various other considerations. They then visit "merchants" to purchase items such as housing, groceries, transportation and child care. When they find themselves in a bind, local credit unions are then able to offer guidance.

More than 90 "Bite of Reality" fairs have reached 9,000 students across the West, including Arizona. Bay added that students have left the real-life simulation feeling more prepared to make better financial decisions, and says adds that while all young people's situations are different, no one can go wrong with learning how to better manage their money.

"So the more practice they have in a safe environment, where they aren't going to have a catastrophic mistake that is detrimental to their credit which would impact their ability to find an apartment to live in, or get a small-business loan or a graduate-school loan down the line, it is really, really critical," she continued.

Bay said having been a financial educator and counselor for many years, she knows many people "cringe" at the thought of making a budget and says a simulation exercise like "Bite of Reality" has made doing so less of a burden and more interactive, hopefully leaving participants with important lifelong skills.


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First-generation college students face a host of expectations and challenges - and that's why New Mexico State University will spotlight their accomplishments this month. First-gen students account for about one-third of the NMSU student population.

Rosa De La Torre-Burmeister, advising technology assistant director, says parents, siblings and other family members of first-generation students often are overwhelmed with pride.

"From the siblings, it's nothing but excitement and they want to follow," she explained. "They want to be like their brother or sister. They're celebrated as, I would call them, a 'hero.'"

She added many students new to the university system say they're motivated by watching their own parents achieve dreams after moving to the U.S. without financial resources, a firm grasp on English or the opportunity to pursue higher education.

She said first-generation students face pressures at home and school. They may have trouble relating to peers from families who've attended college for decades, learning the unspoken cultural norms and navigating university life. This is the fifth year NMSU will honor those efforts which Torre-Burmeister feels is important, during a time when good news is often overshadowed.

"There's so many successes that we don't celebrate - there are just so many other negative issues out there that we don't celebrate these moments for these students - these individuals who have worked so hard to earn this certification," she continued.

Torre-Burmeister is a first-generation student, who added she still finds it hard to believe she went from picking onions and tomatoes to graduating from Doña Ana Community College and receiving advanced degrees from Penn University and NMSU.

About 300 young adults leaving foster care in California will now receive a monthly check to help them make ends meet, part of the state's first guaranteed income program.

Some 150 people in Ventura will receive $1,000 a month and another 150 in San Francisco will receive $1,200 dollars a month, with no strings attached.

Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, who wrote the bill to launch the program, said "paternalistic" programs restricting the aid to cover only food or rent have not worked in the past.

"People in poverty need to be empowered, just like the rest of us, to make their own decisions," Cortese contended. "It really should be up to them to decide whether they need food, a warm coat, or rent. These aren't decisions that the state should be making, these are decisions that individuals should be making."

Opponents worry people receiving unrestricted income could waste it on luxuries, but post-analysis of pilot programs in Stockton and Santa Clara County disprove the concern. While the effort is the first statewide universal basic income program, there are also about 200 local programs now operating across California.

Cortese argued such programs reduce homelessness and end up saving the state money in the long run.

"We have significant economic disparity issues in this state," Cortese pointed out. "This gets the kind of outcomes that we're looking for in terms of giving people a leg up and keeping them out of the systems that cost us a lot of money; incarceration, like mental health and so forth."

Cortese hopes to secure funding next year for a similar proposal, called the California Success, Opportunity, and Academic Resilience or "SOAR" program, which would give a five-month stipend to the 15,000 homeless children who exit California high schools each year.


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