This program will ensure that college students who have experienced the foster care system have immediate access to flexible resources to address the challenges presented by COVID-19 over the next 3 months. Examples of such needs are: imminent housing loss, emergency food resources, educational technology, health care, and other special individual needs.
Campus-based foster youth programs and non-profit organizations that serve transition-aged foster youth will be responsible for verifying that a student is a current or former foster youth and for vetting the urgency of the need. Together We Rise (TWR) will contact referred students within one business day of receiving a referral and will conduct an initial needs assessment, articulate a plan to address the student’s immediate need, provide additional support resources, collect documentation of the need and disburse funds as appropriate. Funds may be disbursed directly to students or to third-party vendors, as determined most appropriate by TWR.
TWR will follow up with students weekly to ensure their immediate need was successfully addressed and connect them to all available benefits that may be available to support longer-term needs including financial aid, unemployment insurance, earned income tax credits and economic impact payments.
The Mission of Together We Rise is to transform the way youth navigate through the foster care system in America.
560 W. Lambert Rd. Suite A