Throughout 2022-2023, our Policy Director, Gabriella Celeste, collaborated with various committees and advisory boards to advocate and support children, youth, and their families. Key achievements include:
Child Lead Poisoning Prevention Policy
The Ohio Lead-Free Kids Coalition (OLFKC): At the end of 2022, the OLFKC celebrated a historic achievement with the passage of HB 45 (incorporating parts of HB 587), which included $150 million in new American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding for lead poisoning prevention -- the largest single investment in lead poisoning prevention in Ohio’s history! Working closely with the Ohio Healthy Home Network and Ohio Poverty Law Center as co-leaders, our center organized an advocacy effort for the ARPA funding, branding it as the “Ohio Lead Safe Jobs Initiative.” We are profoundly grateful to the Ohio General Assembly, especially the Senate and House Finance leadership. We continue to collaborate with the Ohio Departments of Development and Health to help plan for the effective deployment of these new dollars, including critical investments in the construction, painting, and renovation workforce to help to make older homes and child care centers lead-safe and to ensure the use of lead-safe work practices.
OLFKC-related activities: Additional activities included organizing a half-day “field trip” in Toledo during National Lead Poisoning Prevention Week in October 2022 to highlight the importance of primary prevention. We also organized an Advocacy Day in Columbus on March 28, 2023, to educate Ohio State legislators about the importance of funding and policy language in the FY24-25 state budget bill in preventing childhood lead poisoning; testifying on the state budget HB 33 on the need for increased funding and support for lead abatement efforts; and weighing in on the Ohio Department of Health’s 5-year rule review of their lead program, which included urging that they adopt the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s new guidance on lowering actional level for elevated blood lead levels.
OLFKC leadership: As the co-founder of the OLFKC, our center continues to co-lead and provide comprehensive communications, including monthly newsletters and timely alerts, website and social media support, and other ongoing support and outreach to ensure state leaders and community partners remain informed about the OLFKC's policy priorities and efforts.
Local Engagement: As a founding member of the Lead Safe Cleveland (LSC) Steering Committee, Policy Director Celeste remains actively engaged in local lead prevention activities. This includes ensuring families have access to early intervention supports and services offered by Bright Beginnings and supporting the development of a new program focused on mitigating lead in childcare facilities, administered by Starting Point.
Youth Justice, Police-Youth Interactions & Youth Crisis Response
Juvenile Justice Best Practices: Our center continues to work in partnership at the state and local levels to adopt best practices for children and young people in the juvenile justice system. These best practices include
- Legislative Reforms: Supporting legislative reforms to the bindover law, led by the Ohio Public Defender and the Children’s Law Center, which currently allows the transfer of children to adult court for certain offenses. Policy Director Celeste moderated a panel on youth bindover organized by Greater Cleveland Congregations in December.
- State Youth Facilities: Regularly meeting with the Ohio Department of Youth Services to address the treatment of young people in state youth correctional facilities and programs. A significant concern this year was ODYS’s adoption of OC (“pepper”) spray in state facilities; Celeste and partners are monitoring the use of OC to deter correctional staff's overreliance on this use of force on incarcerated youth.
- Community Engagement: Conducting quarterly visits with community partners to meet with children held in the Cuyahoga County juvenile detention center and hear directly from them about their needs and concerns. We are grateful to the juvenile administrative judge, court, and detention staff for making these visits possible and debriefing with Celeste and the team to improve conditions for young people confined in detention.Alternatives to Detention: Collaborating with county juvenile court staff and community partners to identify and expand effective community-based alternatives to detention that are age-appropriate, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed, aiming to improve outcomes of youth who come in contact with the system.
Mental Health Response Advisory Committee: After eight years, Policy Director Celeste stepped down from serving on the Mental Health Response Advisory Committee and QI Sub-Committee as part of the CDP Consent Decree. In this role, Celeste strived to represent the concerns and interests of children and young people impacted by the police and reform efforts in Cleveland. She ensured youth police interactions were captured in the data, better understood from a developmental lens in training, and addressed in the broader police policy reforms. Policy Director Celeste is grateful to the Cuyahoga County ADMHAS Board for its leadership with the MHRAC and for highlighting children in the latest MHRAC Annual Report, which features a “Spotlight in Youth and CIT [crisis intervention team] Incidents.” Celeste’s work on the MHRAC QI Sub-Committee emphasized the overuse of restraints on Black girls. It led to a “Monitoring Team Review of CIT Cases Involving Handcuffing of Female Juveniles Results,” which she responded to in a Memorandum to the US District Court, the Monitoring Team, CDP (and the City of Cleveland upon the transfer of MHRAC to the City), pressing for more oversight and attention to the disparate treatment of Black girls.
Policing Standards: Our center continues to monitor the rollout of the Ohio Collaborative Community-Policy Advisory Board state policing standard: "Developmentally Appropriate Policing and Positive Youth Interactions," engaging with partners, such as the Juvenile Justice Coalition of Ohio, to work to ensure the adoption of this youth standard in police departments statewide.
Children’s Cabinet Planning: Policy Director Celeste worked with Mayor Bibb's administration with the Greater Cleveland Coalition to support the planning for a Children's Cabinet, which is currently underway. She continues to advocate for city-county-juvenile court collaboration on youth justice-related issues in partnership with other organizations, including the Children’s Law Center and the ACLU.
Child Wellness
Child Protection Team Model: After several years of work with the Division of Children and Family Services (DCFS) Advisory Board and county leaders, including incoming County Executive Ronayne, to secure support for a medically coordinated child protection team (CPT) model, Cuyahoga County Council passed funding for CPT. DCFS recently launched the program with Canopy as the lead coordinator, collaborating with MetroHealth, the Cleveland Clinic, and UH Rainbow Babies & Children hospitals.
Non-Police Care Response: Growing out of the police reform efforts, Celeste has been active with community partners in promoting non-police care response interventions for children and young people in crisis, collaborating with the ADMHAS Board, the Center for Innovative Practices at CWRU, and local child providers. This effort supports adopting the mobile response stabilization services (MRSS) model in Cuyahoga County, launched by Bellefaire JCB in Fall 2022. In November 2022, Celeste organized and moderated a Schubert Center panel, “Building a Youth Crisis Care Response,” featuring these partners and a young adult peer advocate to bring public awareness to the importance of this new approach.
Strong Foundations Act: Our center was pleased to join Groundwork Ohio and numerous other organizations to provide testimony supporting the Strong Foundations Act (Sub HB 7), which focuses on strengthening connections and safe homes, maternal and perinatal health, early childhood development, and promoting healthy families. The Strong Foundations Act's comprehensive approach and evidence-based strategies provide a promising path forward for creating a nurturing and supportive environment for the well-being and future of Ohio's children and families.
Policy Engagement and Advisory Groups: Policy Director Celeste serves on several state and local committees, advisory groups, workgroups, etc., including:
- Cuyahoga County Division of Children and Family Services Advisory Board, County Executive, and Council Appointee.
- Mental Health Response Advisory Committee, Policy, and Quality Improvement Sub-Committee Co-Chair, ADMHAS CEO appointee.
- Ohio Public Defender Commission, Governor Appointee
- Ohio Lead-Free Kids Coalition, Co-Founder & Co-Chair
- Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition, Steering Committee appointee
- United Way Right to Counsel Advisory Committee
- Ohio Multi-System Youth Coalition
- Greater Cleveland Children’s Coalition
- Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiatives, Steering Committee, Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court