Throughout 2023-24, Policy Director Gabriella Celeste collaborated with various committees and advisory boards to advocate and support children, youth, and their families. Key achievements include:
Youth Justice, Police-Youth Interactions & Youth Crisis Response
State Juvenile Justice Reform - Governor's Juvenile Justice Working Group Status Report
Governor DeWine appointed Policy Director Gabriella Celeste to a newly formed Ohio Juvenile Justice Working Group to examine and propose solutions to the problems challenging the state's juvenile justice and corrections system. Since its launching in November 2023, the Working Group has held ten public meetings, including a visit and tour of the DYS Circleville Juvenile Correctional Facility.
Recognizing the situation's urgency, the Working Group adopted two interim recommendations prior to the final report to be released later in 2024:
- The first interim recommendation calls for "system transformation concerning the design and size of its correctional facilities by replacing its current large facilities with numerous smaller facilities." This "smaller is better" approach is intended to more effectively manage youth populations with community partnerships and expand opportunities for both youth diversion and step-down from state correctional facilities.
- A second interim recommendation calls for hiring an outside consultant to review DYS facility operations, in addition to a sampling of juvenile detention centers and community correctional facilities. The Consultant should focus on physical safety, education re-entry programs, and health services, including mental health and behavioral management programs within the juvenile justice system.
Policy Director Celeste has emphasized the importance of using credible data and an understanding of the nature of adolescent development to inform juvenile justice system practice and policy, attention to the built environment of any new or renovated youth facilities to foster rehabilitation and a healthy work environment, the value of trauma-responsive, restorative approaches with youth, and the unique expertise of people with lived experience as credible messengers for effective intervention and community re-entry.
Greater CLE Youth Justice Collective
With multi-year support from the George Gund Foundation, the Greater CLE Youth Justice Collective allows the Schubert Center to work in partnership with the Children's Law Center and the ACLU of Ohio for a collective impact to improve outcomes and opportunities for young people caught up in the criminal justice system. This includes fostering alternative pathways to incarceration through strategic community collaborations and combating the prevailing myths and stereotypes surrounding young people and youth crime with research-driven communications and youth voice. We remain deeply committed to amplifying the voices and experiences of those impacted by the legal system and realizing restorative and transformative justice.
In March, our Youth Justice collective conducted a free (35-minute) webinar to further this work: The Stories We Tell About Our Youth: Separating Fact from Fiction. This event aimed to explore how harmful narratives and misinformation about teenagers, particularly those involved in or at risk of entering the justice system, impact legal and policy environments. Strategies were presented to counter harmful rhetoric, emphasizing the importance of elevating youth voices through credible data, research, and lived experiences. This webinar was the first in what we expect to be a series on these related topics. We aim to highlight trauma-informed language and priorities for meeting the complex needs of especially challenged young people.
This spring, our Greater CLE Youth Justice Collective released weekly, short video clips in response to the CLE.com and Plain Dealer 6-week series on youth in the justice system: .In addition to highlights from the series, we included specific calls to action for members of the public to engage in the larger community of care for our young people.
Child Wellness
1. Youth Mental Health Workforce Development Sprint Task Force
Our center is proud to collaborate with the Youth Mental Health Workforce Development Sprint Task Force, convened to address the shortage of mental health providers serving youth and young adults in Cuyahoga County. Policy Director Celeste joined Workforce Development Board Director Rose, Mayor Bibb, and County Executive Ronayne in releasing the urging the importance of public leadership and cross-sector engagement to invest in a robust behavioral health workforce for our children and young people. Key recommendations include launching a peer support training program, defining career pathways, launching awareness campaigns, and expanding efforts to connect youth to career pathways. At the of the alignment between the Task Force and Governor DeWine's focus in his State of the State on expanding mental health services for youth in crisis, school-based health centers, early childhood supports, and the recommendation of the juvenile justice working group, among other investments. We are encouraged that together, these commitments can foster healthy and healing opportunities for our youth.
2. Child Lead Poisoning Prevention
As a founding member of the Lead Safe Cleveland (LSC) Steering Committee, Policy Director Celeste remains actively engaged in local lead prevention activities, including implementing a local ordinance to ensure rental properties are safe from lead exposure and a pilot program to mitigate lead in childcare located in older home- and center-based facilities.
Policy Director Celeste also serves on the leadership team of the to promote effective lead prevention policies and investments at the state level. She has worked to ensure children with elevated blood lead levels have access to critical early intervention supports and services. Recently, she helped to organize and attend Advocacy Day in Columbus on April 9th, 2024, educating Ohio State legislators about the importance of eradicating the sources of lead poisoning for our kids and enforcing the lead safety work protections under federal law. Although they have made progress as outlined in the , the urgency of the problem still exists as Ohio has the 2nd highest rate of children testing positive for elevated blood levels in the country.
3. Children & Family Services - Child Welfare & Protection
Having been recently reappointed by the Cuyahoga County Executive and Council to the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Advisory Board, Policy Director Celeste chairs the Prevention Sub-Committee. In the role, she has worked to promote a coordinated child protection team model - a research-supported best practice to help prevent or mitigate child abuse and neglect - and adopt advocacy proposals, including and "
Policy Engagement and Advisory Groups
- Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services Advisory Board, County Executive, and Council Appointee.
- Governor DeWine's Juvenile Justice Working Group
- Greater CLE Youth Justice Collective
- Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiatives, Steering Committee, Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court
- Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, Steering Committee
- Ohio Lead-Free Kids Coalition, Co-Founder & Leadership Team
- Ohio Youth Justice Network
- United Way Right to Counsel Advisory Committee
- Youth Mental Health Workforce Development Sprint Task Force