August 21, 2024 • 17 mins
Curious about how a debt-free education could transform the lives of foster children? In this episode of "Make the Leap," Brad Constant, George Grayeb, and Kristen Beal introduce the Ross Last-Dollar Grant for Foster Children, a last-dollar grant initiative that ensures foster children can attend Ross without tuition fees or student debt. Listen as George shares eye-opening statistics about the financial challenges faced by foster children and explains how this program seeks to mitigate those obstacles, providing not just financial relief but also academic support and tutoring. Ross's commitment to students extends beyond graduation, aiming to equip them with the tools they need to succeed in life.
We also broaden the conversation to address the societal responsibility we all share in supporting foster children. Kristen previews future discussions with experts who will delve into critical topics like trauma-informed care, housing instability, and food insecurities. Stay tuned for an insightful future episode featuring Kelsey Fox from United Way of Delaware County, Ohio, who will share her expertise on homelessness and transitional housing. Don't miss this compelling episode about the power of community and education to change lives.
We’d love to hear from! Send us a message or topic idea.
Stay up to date on Make the Leap by following us on our website, rosspodcast.com, Facebook and LinkedIn.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to Make the Leap, a podcast focused on the
many economic hurdles facingcollege students, lower income
individuals and those strivingto move up the social ladder.
I'm Brad Constant here withGeorge Graeb and Kristen Biel.
Today's episode will sound alittle bit different as we flip
(00:31):
the script and interview George.
So, Kristen, what is our topicfor today?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, thanks, brad.
We're talking about foster careagain, and it's become a very
important topic on the podcastrecently.
We were introduced to the topicduring the first episode of the
season and we then took adeeper dive during our last
episode.
And that brings us to thisepisode in which we have the
privilege to discuss the newRoss.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Foster Care Program.
Thanks, Kristen.
So, George, we'll hand it overto you to introduce us to the
new Ross Foster Care Program.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Thank you, brett.
So the Foster Kids or FosterCare Scholarship Program is what
we would call the last dollargrant program, which means kids
that would meet thequalification of a foster child
as it is laid out on the FAFSA,which is a free application for
federal student aid, wouldqualify to go to Ross without
(01:28):
taking any debt or coming out ofany out-of-pocket expense.
That would Ross cover theirexpenses beyond any grants that
they may qualify for.
And even if they don't qualifyfor any grants, their tuition
and fees will still be coveredthrough the last dollar foster
kids scholarship program.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
What led to the creation of this program then?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
So this is kind of a back to our original
conversation.
I think a lot of it, kristen is, when you put this topic in
front of us a few months back,and so I would have to be
somewhat transparent to say thatI knew next to really next to
nothing about how the fostercare system worked, didn't
really have any grasp of thechallenges kids will have to go
(02:12):
through.
And, as we began thatconversation and realized at any
given time, in the US there are400,000 kids in the foster care
system and that number simplycontinues to rise.
And out of that 400,000,there's roughly over 100,000 of
these that are kids that areeligible for adoption, but they
will wait and wait and wait, andsometimes an excess three years
(02:35):
, of over three years, to find afamily.
So when you look at this andyou look in terms of what their
needs are, when you look at thisand you look in terms of what
their needs are and I knowfoster kids are in different
places Sometimes many of them doget reunited with family, some
of them do get adopted, some ofthem simply age out of the
system.
(03:04):
But the reality, no matter what,93% of the parents of an
adopted child or a foster kidrely heavily on subsidies.
They rely heavily on additionalassistance to be able to take
care and meet the needs of theirkids, and sometimes education
isn't high on that radar and Itruly felt that Ross can step
into that piece of it where wecan offer kids who are
interested in vocationalhealthcare-related education.
They would have access to go toRoss and not have to worry
(03:27):
about out-of-pocket or having totake out loans.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So reducing student debt is central to Ross's
mission, at least since I'vebeen here in these past three
years.
We have moved to a nonprofit.
We started the foundation.
How is this different?
How can students in the fostercare program achieve a debt-free
education without having to doa student loan?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So, look, it's hard to know the hardship the kids
face, but we do know sometimesthat as they start to age out
and almost 10% of them, whenthey age out, are dealing with
some severe challenges andsevere life issues that they
deal with, and sometimes theyend up in some kind of
institutional care.
(04:12):
But what we try to do is justgive one more option.
So, regardless of theirfinancial situation whether they
have no money or they'reeligible for aid or eligible for
federal grants or not eligiblefor any federal grants they will
not have to take out loans orhave to pay out of pocket.
So many of them are probablyare not going to go to school
(04:33):
any other way because theparents are not going to take
out loans.
They're not going to be in aposition to help them.
They already stretched outfinancially.
So this is not just simply goto school with no debt which it
does deliver on that but itreally makes going to school or
going to a post-secondary schoolan option which may never have
been an option to them when theyhit age 18 or 19 and they're
(04:54):
trying to sort out what theywant to do next.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well, how is Ross uniquely positioned to support
these foster kids fromenrollment to post-graduation?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
these foster kids from enrollment to
post-graduation.
It's a new territory, kristen,so we continue to work through
this.
But Ross is set up to providewhat I would call wraparound
services to many of our students.
To begin with, you know theneed for kids coming out of the
foster care system.
I'm not going to even begin toassume that we know or we can
deal with all of it.
I know they get through,sometimes without any meaningful
(05:29):
support.
I know in general, and the datatells us, that they will do
worse in post-secondaryeducational attainment, they
will do worse in employment,they will do worse in housing
stability, they will need publicassistance and sometimes they
don't know how to get it, and weknow they're going to encounter
the criminal justice system.
We know all that and so I'm notnecessarily going to say that we
(05:52):
are in a position to fix it all.
But we do have services.
That extends on the academicside the one-on-one, the
tutoring, the academic support,a lot of hand-holding to make
sure that they can get throughthe academic program, whether
they do it on a campus level orthey do it online.
So we work with a lot of highrisk students.
(06:15):
We have experience, we have thebackground, but this is a new
territory.
This is really an opportunityfor us to provide that service.
Maybe we will adjust to it,make some changes as we go and
try to do it better every day,and I know you and Beth have
been instrumental in helping us,guide us through this process,
(06:36):
and I'm sure we'll continue toprovide better support and
better guidance to kids as we godown that journey.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right.
I find that an admissions repwho cares to do a really
thorough intake of thosestudents really helps them
prepare for their career.
So not just finding a job butgiving them an outcome and
something to work towards thatcan give them the results that
they seek, I think will reallyensure their likelihood of
(07:06):
having a good experience on thefront end and then more likely
to seek out that other supportservices that we offer our
students here at Ross as well.
So I think holding their handfrom the beginning and getting
them to think not job but career, I think then gets them on the
path to completing it by just bythat sheer motivation of
(07:27):
somebody taking the time andworking through that with them.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
We just think about like over 50,000 foster kids
live in some kind of aninstitution, whether a group,
home or environment similar tothat and just think through,
like, what kind of learning doesthat place allow for?
You know how much are theygoing to progress in their pre-K
, you know all the way throughhigh school, and what role does
(07:53):
this play in terms of theirability to start the
post-secondary and ultimatelygraduate?
And the data that you data thatyou look at when it comes to
foster kids is the majority ofthem, over 70% of them, do want
to go to school, they do want toattend a college or a
vocational school, and nearly25% of them do not even complete
(08:14):
high school.
So, even though 70% do want togo and do something, many of
them do not and are not able tofinish high school or even get a
GED.
And less than 6% of foster kidsfinish a two-year or a
four-year degree program.
And so, and as I started thisconversation, there are about
400,000 foster children on anygiven day.
(08:36):
It's like a revolving door, somany exit but many enter.
And when you also look at it interms of what Ross does and in
terms of society, it's againtilted towards the poor, it's
tilted towards minority.
I think there's some data outthere that one out of 17 kids
(08:56):
likely to enter the foster caresystem at some point, but it's
like one out of nine forAfrican-Americans and one out of
seven for Native Americans.
So it does really come right interms of what we do and the
services that we'll provide.
But I'm sure we will have somehiccups as we begin this process
(09:18):
and we will get better overtime.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So that has me thinking more about the future.
As we know short term, we'regoing to start this program, add
it to all of the other servicesthat Ross provided.
Could you shed a little bit oflight on how this program fits
into Ross's future plans overthe maybe the next year, three
years, whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Honestly, this is a reaction to a need.
It literally was not on myradar maybe four or five months
ago.
You know, kristen put it on myradar and then Beth put it on
our radar and we've kind ofdecided that this is something
that we can do and allows ushopefully to help.
I think it fits from theoverall mission, which is we
(09:58):
want to serve students who lackopportunities.
We want to serve students whoare not always been given the
chance to hopefully get out ofpoverty or or at least get some
path out of the situation thatthey're in.
The foster kids has it kind offrom from three different pieces
.
They tend to be financiallychallenged because the parents
(10:19):
are really relying on subsidiesto help these kids.
They tend to also have somereal academic challenges on top
of that, bouncing around fromschool to school, moving from
parent to parent, especially ifthey live in a group home or an
institution and then you've gotthe fact that many of them come
from communities that arealready marginalized and they're
(10:42):
already at risk to begin with.
So you bring all this togetherand that's what we do.
That's really the student thatwe serve.
Except there are even thestudents are at a much, much
higher risk and incredibly more.
I called it in our firstpodcast.
I think we call it theinvisible like they're not on
(11:02):
anybody's radar, nobody knowsthat they're there and
unfortunately, I think as asociety we take them for granted
.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Well, we kind of talked about how society can
help these people and how Rosscan help this population.
But how can people in generalsupport this program if they're
interested?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Well, I think you've touched base in terms of the
challenges they deal with.
They have academic challenges,they have housing challenges.
They have really some severefinancial needs.
So we can maybe meet some ofthat.
We are going to step in andprovide as much academic support
as we can and we're going togive them placement services and
(11:43):
career services as long as theyneed it, for how long they need
it.
But I think this just meets asmall segment of what foster
kids need and what the fosterparents need.
So I think the support has tocome, sometimes in form of
financial support, becauseparents really lack the money or
(12:04):
the resources to meet thechild's need.
Housing becomes such a hugepart of it.
I think we've talked about howmany of them are homeless or
become homeless and the one thatage out of the system.
I mean those are really thebiggest concern.
Almost 10% will age out of thesystem, 20,000 will age out of
the system, and many of themhave no emotional, no financial
(12:25):
support to face what life isgoing to bring at them.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So, george, I'm really excited about this
program.
I'm excited to see how it growsand evolves and adapts and, as
a Ross employee, I'm mostexcited about the fact that this
is just another tool in ourtoolbox to help meet people
where they are and give themwhat they need to give them a
chance to really achieve a goalthat they may not have even
realized was attainable.
So, before we wrap up, is thereanything else that you'd like
(12:51):
to add?
Was attainable.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
So, before we wrap up , is there anything else that
you'd like to add?
You know sometimes, you know,when we look at foster kids and
we look at it in totality and welook at the system, we lose
sight of the individual aspectof what this is all about.
When we look at in terms ofwhat Ross is going to do and
there are maybe nine stateswhere we can have, where we have
physical campuses, and thesenine states really do not have a
(13:12):
large amount of foster kids Ithink Indiana and Ohio, Michigan
, tend to have 10,000 or alittle bit more, but the rest
are 4,000 or 5,000 fosterchildren.
The online program obviouslyhas a much, much wider reach,
but this really comes down toone kid at a time.
They bring different needs,different challenges to the
(13:35):
table and, from whether it isRoss or whatever, what other
academic institution decides tohelp foster kids.
I know, for example, the stateof Michigan has a foster kids
program that supports these kidswhen they want to go to college
.
They really need a fullwraparound services.
This is not going to work bysimply saying, hey, there's a
(13:55):
free tuition, go to school.
It's just simply going to takea lot more than that to get them
to start to finish, to graduate, to get a job, to get some
stability in their housing, intheir situational hopefully you
know past graduation and getthem into a much safer place.
But it's a system that doesn'treally work.
(14:17):
It's stressed financially, it'sstretched financially A lot of
turnover in parents, fosterparents, a lot of turnover in
the state agencies that try tomanage this program.
So it's just going to take alot.
It's going to take academicinstitution, nonprofit churches,
state.
It's just simply going to needconsiderably more resources than
(14:41):
Ross can provide.
But we are going to do what wecan.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
George, thanks for taking the time and talking with
us about the Ross Foster CareProgram.
Thank you, but before we signoff, I want to hand it over to
Kristen to talk about our futureguests and how they fit into
the umbrella services Georgementioned earlier.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Thank you, brad.
I appreciate it.
We have some upcoming gueststhat I think will really add to
our discussion about theservices that we'll be able to
provide to our foster careprogram students.
For our next upcoming guestspeaker we have, they'll be
addressing trauma-informed careand trauma-informed learning,
(15:20):
which many of these learnersthat come to us from foster care
or who are adopted enter intothe system because of a trauma
they've experienced.
Similarly, our next guest willbe someone who will be speaking
to us about housing instability.
In particular she's with anorganization called the
(15:43):
Treehouse who handlestransitional housing for those
young adults who are aging outof the system.
And the last speaker that wehave coming up in the future is
someone who is attesting to foodinsecurities and how we as a
community and society can assistwith these.
(16:05):
And we'll kind of look at eachone of these guest speakers as a
piece of that wraparoundservice from that Ross provides
to all students, including fromadmissions through graduation
and career services andplacement.
So I think we have some reallyinteresting perspectives that
(16:26):
will be coming up soon that willcontribute to our understanding
of the needs that these youngadults that are foster kids or
similarly adaptive kids as well.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Thanks for listening to Make the Leap.
Be sure to visit our site,rosspodcastcom or the podcast
platform of your choice, tolisten to past episodes, as well
as subscribe, so you never missa future episode.
As well as subscribe so younever miss a future episode.
We hope you join us two weeksfrom now for our next episode as
we discuss homelessness andtransitional housing with Kelsey
Fox, the Director in Housing ofCommunity Solutions for United
Way of Delaware County in Ohio.
(17:20):
See you then, thank you.
Welcome to Make the Leap, a podcast focused on the
many economic hurdles facingcollege students, lower income
individuals and those strivingto move up the social ladder.
I'm Brad Constant here withGeorge Graeb and Kristen Biel.
Today's episode will sound alittle bit different as we flip
(00:31):
the script and interview George.
So, Kristen, what is our topicfor today?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Well, thanks, brad.
We're talking about foster careagain, and it's become a very
important topic on the podcastrecently.
We were introduced to the topicduring the first episode of the
season and we then took adeeper dive during our last
episode.
And that brings us to thisepisode in which we have the
privilege to discuss the newRoss.
Speaker 1 (00:57):
Foster Care Program.
Thanks, Kristen.
So, George, we'll hand it overto you to introduce us to the
new Ross Foster Care Program.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Thank you, brett.
So the Foster Kids or FosterCare Scholarship Program is what
we would call the last dollargrant program, which means kids
that would meet thequalification of a foster child
as it is laid out on the FAFSA,which is a free application for
federal student aid, wouldqualify to go to Ross without
(01:28):
taking any debt or coming out ofany out-of-pocket expense.
That would Ross cover theirexpenses beyond any grants that
they may qualify for.
And even if they don't qualifyfor any grants, their tuition
and fees will still be coveredthrough the last dollar foster
kids scholarship program.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
What led to the creation of this program then?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
So this is kind of a back to our original
conversation.
I think a lot of it, kristen is, when you put this topic in
front of us a few months back,and so I would have to be
somewhat transparent to say thatI knew next to really next to
nothing about how the fostercare system worked, didn't
really have any grasp of thechallenges kids will have to go
(02:12):
through.
And, as we began thatconversation and realized at any
given time, in the US there are400,000 kids in the foster care
system and that number simplycontinues to rise.
And out of that 400,000,there's roughly over 100,000 of
these that are kids that areeligible for adoption, but they
will wait and wait and wait, andsometimes an excess three years
(02:35):
, of over three years, to find afamily.
So when you look at this andyou look in terms of what their
needs are, when you look at thisand you look in terms of what
their needs are and I knowfoster kids are in different
places Sometimes many of them doget reunited with family, some
of them do get adopted, some ofthem simply age out of the
system.
(03:04):
But the reality, no matter what,93% of the parents of an
adopted child or a foster kidrely heavily on subsidies.
They rely heavily on additionalassistance to be able to take
care and meet the needs of theirkids, and sometimes education
isn't high on that radar and Itruly felt that Ross can step
into that piece of it where wecan offer kids who are
interested in vocationalhealthcare-related education.
They would have access to go toRoss and not have to worry
(03:27):
about out-of-pocket or having totake out loans.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So reducing student debt is central to Ross's
mission, at least since I'vebeen here in these past three
years.
We have moved to a nonprofit.
We started the foundation.
How is this different?
How can students in the fostercare program achieve a debt-free
education without having to doa student loan?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
So, look, it's hard to know the hardship the kids
face, but we do know sometimesthat as they start to age out
and almost 10% of them, whenthey age out, are dealing with
some severe challenges andsevere life issues that they
deal with, and sometimes theyend up in some kind of
institutional care.
(04:12):
But what we try to do is justgive one more option.
So, regardless of theirfinancial situation whether they
have no money or they'reeligible for aid or eligible for
federal grants or not eligiblefor any federal grants they will
not have to take out loans orhave to pay out of pocket.
So many of them are probablyare not going to go to school
(04:33):
any other way because theparents are not going to take
out loans.
They're not going to be in aposition to help them.
They already stretched outfinancially.
So this is not just simply goto school with no debt which it
does deliver on that but itreally makes going to school or
going to a post-secondary schoolan option which may never have
been an option to them when theyhit age 18 or 19 and they're
(04:54):
trying to sort out what theywant to do next.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Well, how is Ross uniquely positioned to support
these foster kids fromenrollment to post-graduation?
Speaker 3 (05:07):
these foster kids from enrollment to
post-graduation.
It's a new territory, kristen,so we continue to work through
this.
But Ross is set up to providewhat I would call wraparound
services to many of our students.
To begin with, you know theneed for kids coming out of the
foster care system.
I'm not going to even begin toassume that we know or we can
deal with all of it.
I know they get through,sometimes without any meaningful
(05:29):
support.
I know in general, and the datatells us, that they will do
worse in post-secondaryeducational attainment, they
will do worse in employment,they will do worse in housing
stability, they will need publicassistance and sometimes they
don't know how to get it, and weknow they're going to encounter
the criminal justice system.
We know all that and so I'm notnecessarily going to say that we
(05:52):
are in a position to fix it all.
But we do have services.
That extends on the academicside the one-on-one, the
tutoring, the academic support,a lot of hand-holding to make
sure that they can get throughthe academic program, whether
they do it on a campus level orthey do it online.
So we work with a lot of highrisk students.
(06:15):
We have experience, we have thebackground, but this is a new
territory.
This is really an opportunityfor us to provide that service.
Maybe we will adjust to it,make some changes as we go and
try to do it better every day,and I know you and Beth have
been instrumental in helping us,guide us through this process,
(06:36):
and I'm sure we'll continue toprovide better support and
better guidance to kids as we godown that journey.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right.
I find that an admissions repwho cares to do a really
thorough intake of thosestudents really helps them
prepare for their career.
So not just finding a job butgiving them an outcome and
something to work towards thatcan give them the results that
they seek, I think will reallyensure their likelihood of
(07:06):
having a good experience on thefront end and then more likely
to seek out that other supportservices that we offer our
students here at Ross as well.
So I think holding their handfrom the beginning and getting
them to think not job but career, I think then gets them on the
path to completing it by just bythat sheer motivation of
(07:27):
somebody taking the time andworking through that with them.
Speaker 3 (07:31):
We just think about like over 50,000 foster kids
live in some kind of aninstitution, whether a group,
home or environment similar tothat and just think through,
like, what kind of learning doesthat place allow for?
You know how much are theygoing to progress in their pre-K
, you know all the way throughhigh school, and what role does
(07:53):
this play in terms of theirability to start the
post-secondary and ultimatelygraduate?
And the data that you data thatyou look at when it comes to
foster kids is the majority ofthem, over 70% of them, do want
to go to school, they do want toattend a college or a
vocational school, and nearly25% of them do not even complete
(08:14):
high school.
So, even though 70% do want togo and do something, many of
them do not and are not able tofinish high school or even get a
GED.
And less than 6% of foster kidsfinish a two-year or a
four-year degree program.
And so, and as I started thisconversation, there are about
400,000 foster children on anygiven day.
(08:36):
It's like a revolving door, somany exit but many enter.
And when you also look at it interms of what Ross does and in
terms of society, it's againtilted towards the poor, it's
tilted towards minority.
I think there's some data outthere that one out of 17 kids
(08:56):
likely to enter the foster caresystem at some point, but it's
like one out of nine forAfrican-Americans and one out of
seven for Native Americans.
So it does really come right interms of what we do and the
services that we'll provide.
But I'm sure we will have somehiccups as we begin this process
(09:18):
and we will get better overtime.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
So that has me thinking more about the future.
As we know short term, we'regoing to start this program, add
it to all of the other servicesthat Ross provided.
Could you shed a little bit oflight on how this program fits
into Ross's future plans overthe maybe the next year, three
years, whatever.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Honestly, this is a reaction to a need.
It literally was not on myradar maybe four or five months
ago.
You know, kristen put it on myradar and then Beth put it on
our radar and we've kind ofdecided that this is something
that we can do and allows ushopefully to help.
I think it fits from theoverall mission, which is we
(09:58):
want to serve students who lackopportunities.
We want to serve students whoare not always been given the
chance to hopefully get out ofpoverty or or at least get some
path out of the situation thatthey're in.
The foster kids has it kind offrom from three different pieces
.
They tend to be financiallychallenged because the parents
(10:19):
are really relying on subsidiesto help these kids.
They tend to also have somereal academic challenges on top
of that, bouncing around fromschool to school, moving from
parent to parent, especially ifthey live in a group home or an
institution and then you've gotthe fact that many of them come
from communities that arealready marginalized and they're
(10:42):
already at risk to begin with.
So you bring all this togetherand that's what we do.
That's really the student thatwe serve.
Except there are even thestudents are at a much, much
higher risk and incredibly more.
I called it in our firstpodcast.
I think we call it theinvisible like they're not on
(11:02):
anybody's radar, nobody knowsthat they're there and
unfortunately, I think as asociety we take them for granted
.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
Well, we kind of talked about how society can
help these people and how Rosscan help this population.
But how can people in generalsupport this program if they're
interested?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
Well, I think you've touched base in terms of the
challenges they deal with.
They have academic challenges,they have housing challenges.
They have really some severefinancial needs.
So we can maybe meet some ofthat.
We are going to step in andprovide as much academic support
as we can and we're going togive them placement services and
(11:43):
career services as long as theyneed it, for how long they need
it.
But I think this just meets asmall segment of what foster
kids need and what the fosterparents need.
So I think the support has tocome, sometimes in form of
financial support, becauseparents really lack the money or
(12:04):
the resources to meet thechild's need.
Housing becomes such a hugepart of it.
I think we've talked about howmany of them are homeless or
become homeless and the one thatage out of the system.
I mean those are really thebiggest concern.
Almost 10% will age out of thesystem, 20,000 will age out of
the system, and many of themhave no emotional, no financial
(12:25):
support to face what life isgoing to bring at them.
Speaker 1 (12:29):
So, george, I'm really excited about this
program.
I'm excited to see how it growsand evolves and adapts and, as
a Ross employee, I'm mostexcited about the fact that this
is just another tool in ourtoolbox to help meet people
where they are and give themwhat they need to give them a
chance to really achieve a goalthat they may not have even
realized was attainable.
So, before we wrap up, is thereanything else that you'd like
(12:51):
to add?
Was attainable.
Speaker 3 (12:52):
So, before we wrap up , is there anything else that
you'd like to add?
You know sometimes, you know,when we look at foster kids and
we look at it in totality and welook at the system, we lose
sight of the individual aspectof what this is all about.
When we look at in terms ofwhat Ross is going to do and
there are maybe nine stateswhere we can have, where we have
physical campuses, and thesenine states really do not have a
(13:12):
large amount of foster kids Ithink Indiana and Ohio, Michigan
, tend to have 10,000 or alittle bit more, but the rest
are 4,000 or 5,000 fosterchildren.
The online program obviouslyhas a much, much wider reach,
but this really comes down toone kid at a time.
They bring different needs,different challenges to the
(13:35):
table and, from whether it isRoss or whatever, what other
academic institution decides tohelp foster kids.
I know, for example, the stateof Michigan has a foster kids
program that supports these kidswhen they want to go to college
.
They really need a fullwraparound services.
This is not going to work bysimply saying, hey, there's a
(13:55):
free tuition, go to school.
It's just simply going to takea lot more than that to get them
to start to finish, to graduate, to get a job, to get some
stability in their housing, intheir situational hopefully you
know past graduation and getthem into a much safer place.
But it's a system that doesn'treally work.
(14:17):
It's stressed financially, it'sstretched financially A lot of
turnover in parents, fosterparents, a lot of turnover in
the state agencies that try tomanage this program.
So it's just going to take alot.
It's going to take academicinstitution, nonprofit churches,
state.
It's just simply going to needconsiderably more resources than
(14:41):
Ross can provide.
But we are going to do what wecan.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
George, thanks for taking the time and talking with
us about the Ross Foster CareProgram.
Thank you, but before we signoff, I want to hand it over to
Kristen to talk about our futureguests and how they fit into
the umbrella services Georgementioned earlier.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Thank you, brad.
I appreciate it.
We have some upcoming gueststhat I think will really add to
our discussion about theservices that we'll be able to
provide to our foster careprogram students.
For our next upcoming guestspeaker we have, they'll be
addressing trauma-informed careand trauma-informed learning,
(15:20):
which many of these learnersthat come to us from foster care
or who are adopted enter intothe system because of a trauma
they've experienced.
Similarly, our next guest willbe someone who will be speaking
to us about housing instability.
In particular she's with anorganization called the
(15:43):
Treehouse who handlestransitional housing for those
young adults who are aging outof the system.
And the last speaker that wehave coming up in the future is
someone who is attesting to foodinsecurities and how we as a
community and society can assistwith these.
(16:05):
And we'll kind of look at eachone of these guest speakers as a
piece of that wraparoundservice from that Ross provides
to all students, including fromadmissions through graduation
and career services andplacement.
So I think we have some reallyinteresting perspectives that
(16:26):
will be coming up soon that willcontribute to our understanding
of the needs that these youngadults that are foster kids or
similarly adaptive kids as well.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Thanks for listening to Make the Leap.
Be sure to visit our site,rosspodcastcom or the podcast
platform of your choice, tolisten to past episodes, as well
as subscribe, so you never missa future episode.
As well as subscribe so younever miss a future episode.
We hope you join us two weeksfrom now for our next episode as
we discuss homelessness andtransitional housing with Kelsey
Fox, the Director in Housing ofCommunity Solutions for United
Way of Delaware County in Ohio.
(17:20):
See you then, thank you.
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