On May 9, 2017, Greenville Women Giving, a philanthropic women’s organization, awarded Fostering Great Ideas (FGI) a $47,000 grant to fund a college success program at Greenville Tech for students from foster care.
College Fellows will provide intensive academic and peer support for students coming from foster care into Greenville Tech. Nationally, only 7% of students who leave foster care graduate college with an Associate Degree and far fewer with a Bachelor Degree. Fostering Great Ideas analyzed the data with Greenville Tech and found an opportunity to create a solution.
They studied four college programs nationally and decided to focus on building a sense of family and belonging among the students, building academic excellence through high quality tutors, and establishing fellowship learning opportunities. This program will be a capstone for Fostering Great Ideas’ current mentor program, which provides one-to-one mentorship of 75 youth in foster care and another 40 who have left care. Mentors walk with the youth through the struggles of care.
All FGI initiatives are innovative in nature and look at foster care through the eyes of the child. How can we all improve the sobering statistics, so children who experienced significant neglect do not have to live under this cloud? How can these children find their intrinsic value and thrive in foster care and beyond? These are the questions begging for solutions. To learn more about Fostering Great Ideas, visit fgi4kids.org.
About Greenville Women Giving: Celebrating its 11th anniversary, Greenville Women Giving (GWG) has reached a milestone of $4.8 million in total grant funding over the eleven years. To learn more about GWG, visit greenvillewomengiving.org.
