The Road to the Finish Line:

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• The Road to the Finish Line
• Support for Youth in Post Secondary Settings
• Great Expectations
• An Initiative of Virginias Community Colleges
  the
• Virginia Foundation for Community College
  Education

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About Great Expectations

• Serves foster youth 13 24, in both high school
  and college.
• Focuses on the value of a college education as
  the best way to gain employment and achieve
  independence.
• Provides education and employment opportunities
  that will improve the likelihood of success for
  foster youth.
• Offers individual support for at-risk foster
  teens as they finish high school, leave their
  foster homes and transition to postsecondary
  education and living on their own.

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About Great Expectations

• Launched in 2008 at 5 Virginia Community
  Colleges.
• Now offered at 15 of the 23 community colleges 2
  additional colleges joining in 2012.

• Danville
• Germanna
• J. Sargeant Reynolds
• John Tyler
• Lord Fairfax
• Mountain Empire
• New River
• Northern Virginia

• Patrick Henry
• Piedmont Virginia
• Southside Virginia
• Southwest Virginia
• Tidewater
• Virginia Highlands
• Wytheville

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Great Expectations Services

• Help with the college admissions/financial aid
• Resource Center www.GreatExpectations.vccs.edu
• Personal counseling and individual tutoring
• Career exploration and coaching job preparation
• Mentoring (by college staff, college peers and
  community volunteers)
• Special programs, e.g. life skills, healthy
  relationships
• Emergency and incentive Funds
• Online Best Practices Forum

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Starting a New Program

• Essentials

• Challenges

• Support of the colleges admin.
• Special training for Campus Coaches
• Coordination with other depts. (e.g. financial
  aid, student success, counseling, tutoring)
• Special programs
• Emergency funds

• Part-time Campus Coaches
• Recruiting students in rural areas
• Building awareness of the program in the
  community
• Setting boundaries
• Lack of housing
• Transportation

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It Takes a Team!

• The Great Expectations Campus Coaches
  are the key!
• Coaches are..the go-to person who musters the
  other services available on the campus and in
  the community for the students
• The team includes.the high school career
  coaches, DSS workers
• foster and
  adoptive parents, volunteer mentors
• interns and
  work/study students, community supporters

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College is within reach

• Virginias Community Colleges have Tuition Grants
  available for foster youth, former foster youth
  and special needs adoptees who have a high school
  diploma or GED.
• The Tuition Grant covers tuition and fees.
• Requirements
• - Enrolls and maintains at least half-time
  credit in an academic program of at least 1 year
• Is a bona-fide resident of Virginia
• Meets the satisfactory standards of the college
  for federal aid programs- Has not been previously
  enrolled full-time in a postsecondary program for
  more than 5 years and does not have
  a bachelors degree
• - Demonstrates a financial need

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Workforce
Development Serviceso

• - Career Coaches
• Middle College
• Virginia Career Readiness Certificate
• Apprenticeship Related Instruction working with
  sponsoring employers
• Occupational Instruction (for certifications and
  licenses)
• - Institutes of Excellence (for high demand
  occupations)
  
• Postsecondary Perkins (to continuously improve
  career/technical education)
• Business Industry - courses to meet VA
  professional and occupational regulations for
  Engineers, Architects, Contractors, Land
  Surveyors, etc.
• Customized Training for more than 170
  participating companies
• Virginia Education Wizard www.vawizard.org
• For more information on VCCS Workforce
  Development
• http//www.vccs.edu/WorkforceServices/WIARegionalL
  ocator/tabid/922/Default.aspx
• 
  
  

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Project Statisticso

• Served over 700 foster youth in the past 3 years
• 15 colleges currently participating
• More than 500 enrolled in fall 2011 (67 college
  11 hs 22 dual)
• Hundreds of workforce development certification
  pgms. available
• 68 foster youth have earned workforce
  certificates
• 8 of those eligible have graduated with an
  associates degree or workforce certification
• 66 of those in the high school program graduated
• 130 students are over 21
• - 26 staff
• - Emergency funds have been used for housing,
  transportation, utility bills, medical care,
  books and, in special cases, loss of financial
  aid.

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Economic Analysiso

• Measuring the Costs of Foster Care and the
  Return on Investment of the Great Expectations
  Initiative, produced by Chmura
  EconomicsAnalytics, provided these highlights
• Costs of foster care include economic costs and
  social costs.
• The total annual costs for Virginia foster youth
  are estimated to have been 29.7 million in
  Virginia in 2010, or 41,460 per aging-out foster
  youth.
• Foster youth tend to have lower educational
  attainment, are more likely to utilize public
  assistance, and are more likely to be involved
  with the criminal justice system.
• Community college students who were foster youth
  achieved lower academic performance than the VCCS
  student body at large. They were also more likely
  to have part-time jobs while attending school
  than other students.
• The WIA (Workforce Investment Act) participants
  who were foster youth tended to have lower
  educational attainment and lower skill levels
  than other WIA youth.

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Economic Analysiso

• On an individual level, each foster youth who
  drops out of high school costs the public sector
  209,100 over a lifetime due to lost wages and
  greater need for public support services.
  (National Governors Association Report 2010)
• The Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service at
  the University of Virginia, when discussing
  college completion rates in general, found, A
  single years college degree production accounts
  for 349 million in Social Services cost savings
  to the Commonwealth.
• Currently, there are more than 500 students
  enrolled in Great Expectations programs across
  the state. If the programs are successful in
  eliminating the achievement gaps in terms of
  economic and social outcomes, GE can save
  Virginia 10.1 million per year, far more than
  the 1.5 million annual cost of the program.

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What Our Students Say

• I want to become a chef and open my own
  restaurant. Great Expectations is important
  because it shows theres a support system.
  Someone else is out there who cares about helping
  you.
• - Heather, age 18

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Contact Information

• Carol Underhill
• Project Director of Great Expectations
• Virginia Community College System
• 101 N. 14th Street, 15th floor Richmond, VA
  23219
• [phone]
• cunderhill_at_vccs.edu
• http//greatexpectations.vccs.edu/