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In San Diego County approximately 6,500 youth are part of the foster care system. Each year, some 300 of them leave the system. After age 18 their future prospects are grim:
50% will end up unemployed
33% will require public assistance
25% will become incarcerated
Less than 10% will attend college
Only 3% will actually graduate college
Emancipated foster youth have many special needs because of their challenging life experiences and their lack of a supportive family structure. These life challenges are often insurmountable without adult mentoring, educational opportunities, financial support, and caring role models. Yet, we are at a point today where a college degree is often a key factor in achieving long-term success.
In order to address these grim statistics, the COC has worked diligently over the past decade to develop and implement a multi-year program initiative that works with high school aged foster youth throughout San Diego County. This initiative first began in the fall of 2003 and was known as Fostering Community Connections (FCC). Foster youth engaged in FCC enrolled in the Social Work 120: Introduction to Social Work course at San Diego State University. After completing the course, students received general elective college and high school credits. The curriculum material for this course covered a range of social issues, including access to health care, public education, governmental aid programs, cycle of poverty, unemployment, and others.
As part of the course students participated in 40 hours of community service that incorporated the premise of community-based learning. Students committed to working every week at a medical clinic or a non-profit organization and were provided with the opportunity to link their work in the community with what they learned in the classroom. Extensive outreach and assistance was provided to these students throughout their senior year in order to assist them in researching colleges, applying for scholarships/financial aid and emancipating from the foster care system successfully.
As the result of a generous grant from The Alex Smith Foundation, the FCC program was renamed, the Alex Smith Foundation SDSU Guardian Scholars Program (ASGS) and ran for several successful years before its conclusion in December 2010.
To date, over 180 foster youth have participated in programs that fall under our Foster Youth Initiative and over 80% have continued on to college. Our focus on foster youth and foster youth alumni continues at the COC as Program Manager Jennifer Martinez works diligently to ensure that our program alumni successfully transition into adulthood and college life.
For more information, please contact Jennifer Martinez (619) 594-3870 or jenmartinez@projects.sdsu.edu.
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