Youth Voice

Movement

One Voice IMPACT

YOUTH VOICE TO FOSTER CHANGE

One Voice IMPACT (OVI) is a youth engagement initiative powered by Selfless Love Foundation that provides current and former foster youth opportunities to: 

  • DEVELOP skills for leadership and life
  • ADVOCATE for changes to policy 
  • JOIN a network of youth leaders across the state of Florida to improve the system of care

Together, our network of young people and child welfare system professionals are giving youth voices center stage to raise awareness about the value of youth participation in decisions that impact their future.

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What is One voice impaact?

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Join the Youth Voice Movement

Foster youth and alumni across the state

Want to be heard? Integrate YOUR VOICE into decision making, program improvement, policy development, and other important areas by getting involved with OVI's various programs.

Read what changes youth would like to see implemented in Florida's foster care system.

Check out our new 2022 OVI Manual!

Preview Our 2021 Year-End Report to Learn More!

WANT TO LEARN MORE about our ovi network of councils?

Check out our OVI Manual Here!
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One voice impaact

About us

 Who? Youth Leaders impacted by the foster care system

What? Selfless Love Foundation’s youth-driven initiative amplifying youth voice

Where? Youth Councils are formed across the state of Florida

When? Monthly meetings and quarterly webinars

How? Sign up by joining the youth voice movement HERE

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“OVI is the coolest thing ever. It gives a voice to foster care youth. It gives us an opportunity to tell the leaders to make changes.”

Show your support by signing the youth voice pledge!

We are hoping to have 1000 people show their support for youth in foster care by signing the Youth Voice Pledge.

Former Foster Youth

Supporters

Diamond Whitley

Communications Intern

John Watson

Youth Engagement Intern

Meet our Team

Elizabeth Wynter, EdD, LMHC
SLF Executive Director

Brandie McCabe
SLF Youth Initiatives Director

Kendra Hilton
OVI Network Director

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Jenna Leon
SLF Community Relations Director

Diamond Whitley
OVI Youth Engagement Specialist

John Watson
OVI Youth Council Specialist

our programs

Network of youth councils

The OVI Network of Youth Councils seeks to harness authentic youth voice, giving youth with lived experience opportunities to work alongside system leaders to find solutions to local issues and give councils a platform for statewide collaboration.

Want to learn more about our Youth Councils? Contact Kendra at [email protected].

advocacy training

OVI provides self, local, and legislative advocacy training to agencies across Florida. Youth and staff champions learn alongside one another on how and when youth with lived foster care experience should participate in decisions that impact them and develop strategies for improving the very system designed to provide them with services and support.

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A special thank you to our community partners!

Five selected finalists will present their dreams/aspirations on May 14, 2022 at The Dream Tank Competition in Palm Beach. 

Each finalist will receive an award of $1,000. The winner will receive a $5,000 award.

All contestants have completed Leadership Training prior to entering.

dale carnegie training

Each year, OVI provides Foundation for Success – Dale Carnegie Virtual Leadership Training to a select group of youth from around the state with the help of our generous sponsor, Pulte Family Charitable Foundation. Over the course of six (6) meetings, participants develop vital skills in the following key areas: 

Financial | Personal | Community | Education | Vocation | Health




dream tank competition

Former foster youth who successfully complete the Dale Carnegie Training are eligible to apply to participate in Selfless Love’s Dream Tank. Five youth are selected to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime experience. Over the course of the year, Dream Tank contestants will participate in sessions on speech writing and presentation, professional etiquette, business tips from top leaders, and investment basics. They will be introduced to professional connections in their field of interest and gain valuable knowledge and skills as they prepare to reveal their dream at Dream Tank Competition held each spring the night before SLF’s Gala in Palm Beach, Florida. On top of this incredible experience, all finalists will receive a $1,000 award and the winner receives a $5,000 award.



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OUR 2022 finalists

Bailey Johnson
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Dream: To open a supportive housing community that provides former foster youth with a loving environment and positive role models to guide them toward accomplishing their dreams.

Delgadina (Dina) Santos
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Dream: To create a centralized resource hub for domestic violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, and child abuse survivors

Demarco Mott
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Dream: To build upon and enhance resources and supports dedicated for those with lived foster care experience and advocate to make these benefits uniform across the U.S.

Kaitlynn Hanson
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Dream: To own a coffee shop that employs underrepresented people and creates a safe place for them to learn life skills with real life opportunities to grow, learn, and be supported.

Lucan Phillips

Dream: To have a nonprofit that creates opportunities for underserved children through mentorship.

Thank you to The Pulte Family Foundation for supporting our Dale Carnegie Leadership Training and Dream Tank Competition.

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follow the love

Youth transitioning out of the foster care system need all the same things that other youth need but without family to support them they have a steeper climb to self-sufficiency. Follow the Love (FTL) is a relational permanency initiative focused on ensuring that ALL youth who age out of the system have a formalized connection with a supportive adult to help them transition to adulthood. In 2022, the FTL collaborative initiative is being launched as a pilot in Florida with six (6) agencies.

FOSTER youth voice month

Help us change the way the world sees foster youth each October and year-round through our Foster Youth Voice month campaign that features blogs written by youth with lived foster care experience and system professionals, events with our Network of Youth Councils, and more!

Stay tuned for more on our 2022 campaign and get involved by emailing [email protected]!

Dream Tank 2022 Applications Due September 3, 2021

get plugged in!

OVI has partnered with the Florida Institute for Child Welfare (FICW) on a podcast series to get "Transition-Age Foster Youth Get Plugged Into Resources." Listen to learn more about how you can access these resources!

youth whisperer blog

Listen to youth voices and professionals in the child welfare system.

Webinars & Training

Various webinars and trainings are taking place throughout the year.

OVi
Reports

Issue reports combine research, policy review, data, and youth voice to offer findings and questions for the field.
Connect with Selfless Love on social!

Dale Carnegie Leadership Training

“Participating in Dale Carnegie Leadership Training is providing me with tools I’ll use for a lifetime!”

Jordan

Brown’s Harbor

If I want to be successful, I must first believe in myself, I know that I am capable of anything, and live out these beliefs every day. The leadership trainings have taught me that if I don’t believe in myself first, nobody else will.

Sandra

Dale Carnegie Training

Dale Carnegie Training taught me how to communicate in my personal and professional life.

Gaiola T.

Brown’s Harbor

When I was 17, I was left homeless for two months and still in high school. Then I found Brown’s Harbor and my life changed forever.

Tyler

Calendar
of Events

Don't miss out! Visit our calendar and learn about our upcoming workshops, training and events.
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