After 21 foster homes and 1 failed adoption, Austintown man urges passage of bill

YOUNGSTOWN

Gabriel Young wants the Ohio Senate to pass early next year a proposal to raise the age of emancipation for foster youths from 18 to 21, which cleared the Ohio House by a 91-2 vote Dec. 1.

“Pass it quickly because there are children that are in [children services] care now that this bill needs to be passed for,” Young said.

The delayed emancipation of foster youths will improve high-school graduation and college admission rates and reduce poverty rates in that population, he said.

Young, 18, of Austintown, has lived in 21 foster homes, and, for six years, ending at age 13 in an adoptive home, from which child welfare officials removed him and returned him to foster care.

His stays in any given foster home ranged from two weeks to one year.

Young, who is studying culinary arts at the Mahoning Career and Technical Center in Canfield and has a 2.9 grade-point average, works part time as a cashier at a Youngstown-area McDonald’s.

Read more about the extraordinary challenges he still faces in Saturday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.