To actively connect transitioning and former foster youth in Maryland with resources and programs already provided by local non-profit organizations. MFYRC will also work with state and local child welfare agencies to incorporate the youth voice into system change.
Ensure that all youth transitioning out of foster care and foster care alumni in Maryland are aware of resources available to them and have the tools they need to become successful and contributing members of society.
Making sure that the voice of foster youth is included in child welfare policy and practices.
Foster Youth Incorporated (FYI)
A new program created by Shantel Randolph that has transitioned under MFYRC is Foster Youth Incorporated (FYI) is a youth-driven program dedicated to bettering the lives of foster youth. FYI teaches foster youth about their rights and responsibilities while in foster care, educates lawyers, judges, social workers and the community about the foster care system and improvements needed, advocates for changes in the foster care system, and presents service and leadership and advocacy opportunities for the youth members. read more
Foster Youth Leadership Initiative (FYLI) It's purpose is to recruit and train transitioning and former foster youth to train their peers on life skills needed when exiting care and social workers/foster parents on the importance of the foster youth voice and experience. As they learn to become trainers, FYLI will equip them with the skills that will assist their personal transition from foster care and ensure their successful transition into the mainstream workforce.read more
If you're interested in volunteering, being a Community Partner or donating, please email us at info@mfyrc.org or call 410-630-1203.
Shalita O'Neale
Founder & Executive Director
soneale@mfyrc.org
Shalita O’Neale is a former foster youth from Baltimore, Maryland where she spent 19 years collectively in kinship and foster care. She initially entered kinship care at 2 years old and bounced back and forth between family members before officially entering foster care at the age of 13. Shalita was then bounced around between foster families and later ended up in a group home before going away to college. She graduated from the University of Maryland at College Park with a BA in criminology in 2004 and is currently seeking her Master of Social Work at the University of Baltimore.
The support that she received from caring people along the way and her determination to make things better for youth in and from foster care inspired her to found the Maryland Foster Youth Resource Center (MFYRC). Shalita is also the Co-founder and President of Foster Care Alumni of America, Maryland Chapter. FCAA is a non-profit organization that connects foster care alumni to form a sense of family and to help transform policy and practice for the youth currently in foster care.
Shalita has a passion for giving back to the foster youth community and has spoken at numerous seminars, conferences and workshops on the foster care experience. She feels that it is the responsibility of able former foster youth, the government to whom foster children belong and the society in which they are expected to live, to make sure that they receive life skills, resources and support that will enable them to become successful and contributing members of society.
Shantel Randolph aged-out of Baltimore City’s foster care system at the age of 21. She is using her OSI Baltimore Community Fellowship to help other young people in foster care successfully move to adulthood, working with a group of 15 to 18 students at the Baltimore Freedom Academy who are either in foster care or aging out of care. They participate in her program called "Foster Youth Incorporated" or FYI, which empowers foster youth to advocate for improvements to Maryland's foster care system.
She also is working with the Maryland Department of Education to try to expand her FYI program to other Baltimore high schools. She wants to train some of her group's original members to act as liaisons between her and the new high school sites. These paid youth liaisons would counsel other youth about getting the most out of the foster care system. Shantel feels that by creating a safe place for our foster youth to express themselves, they can creatively strive toward maintaining a stable, balanced life after high school.
Emanual Holley
Youth Advocay & Training Coordinator
eholley@mfyrc.org
Emanuel William Holley is a former foster youth from Baltimore, Maryland where he spent 12 years in foster care. He moved between different placements for 3 years until he was in placed at TuTTie’s Place, a community-based residential foster care in a group home setting to adolescent boys, aged 8-21, in Baltimore, Maryland. Emanuel went into independent living at the age of 18 where he was successful as he understood early that he must focus on his potential instead of his limitations.
The support that Emanuel received from caring people along the way and his never ending determination to make things better for himself and the community has inspired him to advocate for young people in and out of foster care. After meeting Shalita O’Neale and learning of MFYRC’s mission, he was eager to get involved. Currently, Emanuel is MFYRC’s Youth Advocacy and Training Coordinator and is seeking a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work part-time from Morgan State University. As Emanuel likes to often say “the greatest tragedy in life is not death, but a life that never achieved its full potential.”
