Baltimore Community Fellowships

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Shantel Randolph wanted to use her fellowship to help young people in foster care successfully move to adulthood, and also empower them to advocate for improvements to Maryland's foster care system.

 Now that her fellowship is over, not only will the young people be speaking up for themselves, but Randolph will be advocating for them as well.

 "My fellowship ended with me accomplishing much more than I ever would have imagined," says Randolph, who was herself in foster care as a young person. "Because of OSI, I have had the opportunity to work closely with the state department, working on issues surrounding youth in care. I have had the opportunity to sit in on meetings with the Secretary of the Department of Human Resources and to provide her with a youth voice through FYI."

 FYI or "Foster Youth Incorporated," is a program Randolph started to help youth in foster care learn valuable life skills, and also how to advocate for improvements to the system.

 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, Randolph helped teach the youth such skills as how to balance a budget, how to fill out an application for an apartment and what it means to have-and maintain-good credit.

 State officials took notice of her work, and now Randolph will be working with the Maryland Foster Youth Resource Center as director of their Youth Advocacy and Education department. In that role, Randolph will be developing a curriculum for use as a training tool for group homes and foster homes, that will provide youth in foster care with tools and training to successfully age out of the foster care system. Randolph also will help develop a statewide Youth Advisory Board, with the goal of having chapters in every county throughout Maryland.

But she will continue to focus on FYI.

 "Although FYI did not expand into other schools as I had hoped, we are looking to hire current and former youth in care to work in schools with other youth in care," Randolph says.

 Randolph was able to accomplish much during her fellowship, but she says she had to learn not to try to accomplish quite so much so quickly.

 "One of the key lessons that I have learned is to take my time and not rush in, trying to accomplish everything in a certain time period," she says. "I have learned that it's great to set goals, but that I have to be open to not always meeting those goals. Instead, I should focus on all the things I have managed to accomplish."

 Like other OSI fellows, Randolph also says she learned the value of partnerships. Some of those partnerships are with large agencies or benefactors, but others simply are with the people who know and love you best.

 "Building healthy relationships and partnerships is extremely important to getting your mission accomplished," Randolph says. "But I have also learned to create and depend on my support systems, family and friends. These are the people who keep you grounded and focused on your vision, when you feel like it's never going to happen or when you are overwhelmed."