CINCINNATI — More than 80 Hamilton County foster children, their families and supporters walked the red carpet flanked by clapping support personnel from the Jobs and Family Services Wednesday as the system celebrated the largest group of kids to get a high school diploma in a single school year.
Many in the crowd had suffered traumas they would only speak about in vague terms.
Emily Day said her meeting with the foster system was sudden and shocking.
"I was at school and I never went home," Day said. "I left with my backpack on my back and left with one of my friends to go home and a case worker I never met picked me up and I got dropped off in the middle of Colerain and had no clue where I was."
Despite the sudden shift in her life, Day walked the red carpet and celebrated graduating from Oak Hills High School a full year early.
She said her foster mom was great, but getting to graduation was difficult.
"I had to do it on my own ... not having, like, a big family behind me for support. It's been me," she said.
While largely alone in her journey through school, Day has been far from alone in Hamilton County's foster system.
JFS says the county currently has custody of roughly 1,900 children and nearly a third of them are older than 13.
Community Engagement Manager Tammara Jones acknowledged the kids go through a lot despite JFS's best efforts to provide a support system for them.
"They have so many different obstacles that they face," she said.
Jones said JFS provides support for kids through age 21 with programs like Bridges and helps them find assistance through things like the Youth Navigator Network to make transitioning out of the system less abrupt than disconnecting completely at 18.
"We are always here. We will always be here wherever you are," she said.
JFS is in constant need of foster parents. Day said it's worth it for anyone interested in providing a home for a kid to inquire about how to do it.
"These kids are coming from places where they are beaten and battered and they don't have anyone who cares," Day said. "They just need somebody to love them."
Day said she will be attending the University of Cincinnati where she will study nursing, and she plans to save lives in the Emergency Room when she completes that degree.
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