College planning starts early for many children, with college visits, test preparation and carefully selected courses.
That is often not the case for foster youth, like JBAY Youth Advocate Emmerald Evans. College wasn’t a topic raised in her foster home and despite good grades and a strong desire to attend college, she didn’t think that college was possible. Changing foster homes and schools didn’t help.
“One of the biggest things I wish I had going through the foster care system is consistency. You can’t grow without consistency and stabilization. There is no way that a person is going to find who they are when going from home to home,” said Emmerald.
John Burton Advocates for Youth is working to ensure that foster youth like Emmerald know about college and are well prepared. Through a partnership with Foster Parent College, JBAY developed a two-part curriculum for foster parents, to educate them about how to help youth in their care make a successful transition to college.
The interactive, on-line curriculum is divided into two parts: part one focuses on important academic milestones for foster youth in grades 6 to 10 and how caregivers can create a college-going culture in the home. Part two will focus on the critical junior and senior years of high school, and provide in-depth information about available financial aid and college applications.
Part one was released in May and has been well-received. In less than a month, 97 foster parents have taken the course and, in their evaluations, 97% stated that they would recommend the course to a fellow foster parent. One foster parent put it simply: “Excellent information!”
JBAY Senior Project Manager Jessica Petrass led the development of the course, “We are excited to empower foster parents with the necessary skills to help youth achieve their dreams through a higher education.”
As we develop part two of the course, JBAY will continue to conduct outreach to county child welfare agencies and foster parents, to educate them about this valuable resource.
Fortunately for Emmerald, she started participating in a program for foster youth her senior year of high school, learning about college requirements and the process to apply. She is currently a student at Sacramento State and has her sights set on law school after that. Thanks to JBAY’s partnership with Foster Parent College, many more foster youth will be following in her footsteps.