The Casey Family Programs has released new, free resources for college student support services, administrators, advisors, financial aid counselors and advocates. The mission of the Casey Family Programs is to provide and improve - and ultimately to prevent the need for - foster care. Established by United Parcel Service founder Jim Casey, it is a Seattle-based national operating foundation that has served children, youth, and families in the child welfare system since 1966.

For youth from foster care, college can mean freedom from their past - a future rich with possibilities. It may be their most important pathway to career and personal success. Access to higher education for youth from foster care remains far too limited. Few students from foster care ever gain access to higher education programs, let alone graduate from college. Only about 10 percent of students from foster care enroll in higher education - with less than 2 percent obtaining bachelor’s degrees.

Youth in foster care often report that few people in their lives ever expected them to attend and succeed in college. These students seldom receive the kind of guidance and stable supports needed to prepare for and succeed in higher education. Too often, unemployment, underemployment, and homelessness face young adults after they age out of foster care.

An increasing number of colleges, states, policymakers, and advocates have begun to address this issue with calls for policy advances, practice innovations, and influential advocacy. Casey Family Programs' new framework, Supporting Success: Improving Higher Education Outcomes for Students from Foster Care provides program development information and tools for college student support services, administrators, advisors, financial aid counselors and advocates. Background information, recommendations, strategies and model program examples are provided to assist colleges in improving their support for students coming from foster care.

Supporting Success: Improving Higher Education Outcomes for Students from Foster Care is available in PDF or bound formats free from Casey Family Programs.

A guide for child welfare professionals, high school counselors, mentors, and higher education support staff has also been released by the Casey Family Programs. This guide helps in assisting students from foster care, independent students, those with disabilities, and underrepresented youth prepare academically, financially, and emotionally for post secondary education and training success.

It’s My Life: Post secondary Education and Training guide gives professionals the recommendations, strategies, and resources they need to improve their work with young people for college success. It provides eight recommendations and numerous strategies for helping young people begin and succeed in post secondary programs. For those primarily interested in helping young people find funding sources for college or vocational training, Casey also provides It's My Life: Financial Aid, a 30-page excerpt from the guide.

Posted 06/29/09 to www.NASFAA.org. Redistribution to non-NASFAA institutions is prohibited. Please submit Web site questions or comments to Web@NASFAA.org.