The Michigan Department of Treasury is inviting everyone to help support the Fostering Futures Scholarship Trust Fund as the year comes to an end.
Postsecondary Financial Planning Director Robin Lott tells us the program provides college scholarships to students who have been in the foster system.
“It basically raises funds to help students or youth who have aged out of the foster care system and are now in college,” Lott said. “Basically all of our proceeds go toward helping those youths stay in college and graduate.”
Lott says a lot of students coming out of the foster system face barriers to college.
“We find that about 70% to 75% of youth who have aged out of the foster system express a desire to go on with a higher education of some type. It doesn’t have to be college, it could be anything that’s post-secondary. But only about 10% of those students actually pursue or enroll in college.”
And few of them graduate. Lott says that’s why Fostering Futures also provides them with support services on campus.
More than 10,000 youth are in the Michigan foster care system run by Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and each year, Fostering Futures helps around 400 of those youths who age out to attend college.
You can help support the program with an online donation.
Since 2012, fundraising efforts have totaled approximately $1.3 million, all of which has been awarded as scholarships.
