PC receives $75K to support foster youth

Funds provide food, school supplies and other necessities

Porterville College has received $75,000 from the Nextup program to provide extra support to current and former foster youth who choose to attend the college. The funds are for fiscal year 2019, which runs from July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2019.

Through the recent expansion of the Nextup program, PC was one of 15 California community colleges to receive such funding. Nextup, formerly known as Cooperating Agencies Foster Youth Educational Support (CAFYES), now serves 41 community colleges in the state. The program was established through the enactment of Senate Bill 1023 in 2014. Senate Bill 12, which passed last year, allows the California Community Colleges Board of Governors to expand the number of community colleges operating Nextup, depending on available funding.

“Foster youth often face more barriers and obstacles along their path to higher education,” PC Vice President of Student Services Primavera Arvizu said. “This program and opportunity to resources will provide additional tools foster youth need in college to succeed in accomplishing their goals and move forward toward completion and/or transfer.”

The funds PC received will be used to provide food, book vouchers, school supplies, bus passes and laptops to the college’s foster youth. The money also will be used to fund the students’ visits to local four-year institutions to which they may eventually transfer.

PC has had a Foster Youth Success Program since 2006, but had never received any kind of funding specifically for foster youth. Rather, these students had been supported by other programs on campus such as Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS), Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (CARE) and Equity.