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YouthSpeak: The Power of Mentorship
Having an adult mentor can be a powerful force in the life of a foster youth. In the latest CCP YouthSpeak blog post, FosterClub Youth Ambassador Zule Dixon offers advice to both youth and adults about how to create positive mentoring relationships that help foster youth to build skills and develop supportive long-lasting connections. To read the post CLICK HERE.
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Community College System Updates CCCApply Foster Youth Question
The California Community College Chancellor’s Office recently updated several aspects of the community college application, known as CCCApply, including implementing changes to the question regarding foster youth status. The new version of the question offers a simplified set of answer choices and new definitions of terms such as "foster care" and "emancipated" that have been revised to align with current law. The application also now refers students to the Foster Care Ombudsman's Office to clarify their status if necessary. These changes were implemented in order to allow youth with experience in the foster care system to more easily self-identify on the application and gain access to the resources available to them.
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CalYOUTH Study Provides New Insight into Extended Foster Care
On May 9th, the University of Chicago’s Chapin Hall released the second installment of the CalYOUTH study, the most comprehensive view to date of young people transitioning to adulthood from foster care in California. The study found that youth who stayed in care reported better outcomes including a greater likelihood of being employed or in school, more social support and fewer economic hardships. In addition, while most youth in care expressed satisfaction with the services they were receiving, a sizable minority expressed dissatisfaction and a significant number reported receiving inadequate preparation in various like skills, most notably in the areas of financial literacy and housing.
In the arena of higher education, the study found that about 55% were enrolled in school and three fifths of those enrolled in school were attending a 2-year or 4-year college. Many young people were found, however, to not be accessing or aware of financial aid resources and available support. Just two in five of those in school reported utilizing financial aid and while half of those in college were involved in a foster youth campus support program, three in ten youth were not aware of whether their college had a campus support program for foster youth or not. While ninety percent aspired to go to college, forty-six percent of youth surveyed felt that they did not receive adequate support with college planning, emphasizing the need to bolster the level of support provided to foster youth to ready them for the transition from high school to college.
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New Research Highlights Improvements Needed to California’s Financial Aid System
The Institute for College Access and Success recently released two new reports that emphasize the need to expand the availability of financial aid for California’s low-income students, including foster youth. The first report reveals the struggle of community college students to cover college expenses beyond tuition, their experiences with financial aid, and the troubling trade-offs they face when available resources do not stretch far enough. Loss of housing, food insecurity, dropping classes and an inability to purchase textbooks are revealed as the consequences of inadequate financial aid.
The second analysis provides recommendations for how to strengthen the Cal Grant program, a program for which many foster youth are eligible, but few successfully access. The report finds that many needy college students continue to not receive Cal Grants or receive less than others with more resources. The community college system, which serves the greatest number of foster youth by far, is particularly underserved by the Cal Grant program. This is despite research that shows that students are less likely to enroll when they have unmet financial need, and that enrolled students with financial need are less likely to earn degrees than those with none.
For foster youth, who often do not have family to turn to for support, improving access to available financial aid such as the Cal Grant program and Chafee Education and Training Voucher program is essential. This research bolsters the case for legislative proposals such as AB 2506 (Thurmond), which if enacted, will expand the amount of state financial aid available specifically to foster youth. For more information about how AB 2506 will help foster youth to succeed in college, CLICK HERE.
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Community Colleges Awarded $60 Million to Transform Basic Skills Programs
The Board of Governors approved grants yesterday to 43 community colleges under the new Community Colleges Basic Skills and Student Outcomes Transformation Program. This program provides $60 million in Proposition 98 funds to implement or expand evidence-based innovations and redesign in the areas of assessment, student services, and instruction in order to improve the progression rate of basic skills students from remedial education to college level instruction.
Foster youth are more likely than other students to be placed into remedial coursework, and historically the rates of successful completion of a degree for those who enroll in basic skills coursework is extremely low. The hope with this new funding is that disadvantaged students, including foster youth, will be better served by college basic skills programs and more likely to realize success. For a list of the colleges that were selected for funding, CLICK HERE.
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AYPF College Success Webinar Recordings Now Available
The American Youth Policy Forum recently posted two webinars relevant to assisting foster youth to be successful in post-secondary education. The first, Moving the Needle for First Generation College Students: Comprehensive Advising from College Access to Success, highlighted comprehensive advising strategies for supporting first generation students’ college access, transition, and success and discussed the role of policy in scaling these efforts. The second webinar, Technology to Complement Advising for College Access and Success, explored the ways in which technology can be leveraged to complement in-person college advising for disadvantaged students such as foster youth. Considering the ever-present role that technology plays in our lives, online and technology-facilitated advising may be a promising strategy to get information faster and more reliably into the hands of students who need it most.
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Campus Program Staff Invited to Participate in Research Study
The University of Illinois at Chicago, Florida State University, and Wayne State University are conducting a research study to understand the needs and strengths of on-campus programs targeting foster care alumni and how a network of researchers and practitioners might be helpful in improving programs and promoting higher education among youth who have experienced foster care. Researchers are seeking foster youth campus based support program staff to complete an online anonymous survey that takes approximately 15-20 minutes. To participate, you must be 18 years or older, and a researcher interested in higher education among youth who have experienced foster care and/or program staff affiliated with a program supporting foster care alumni at a higher education institution.
Individuals willing to take the survey can CLICK HERE to begin. Questions concerning the research study can be directed to Jennifer Geiger (312.996.7189, geigerj@uic.edu).
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