RICHMOND – The Virginia Tobacco Commission has awarded a two-year, $300,000 grant to the Great Expectations program to benefit current and former foster youth. The grant will allow Virginia’s Community Colleges to expand Great Expectations to four additional community colleges in southwest and southern Virginia.
“The Tobacco Commission was really intrigued by the Great Expectations program,” said state Senator William Wampler, a member of the commission. “We believe that this grant will pay dividends immediately. Participating students in the four colleges will now have a distinct advantage in being able to complete their education and stay on track for a successful career.”
Mountain Empire, Patrick Henry, Southwest Virginia and Wytheville community colleges will use the grant to establish Great Expectations Transitional Education Programs.
“The number of foster children living in the regions the Tobacco Commission focuses on has been growing this decade. The Commission is proud to join with local, state, federal and private partners to expand this savvy and innovative program to ensure that experiencing foster care will not prevent a young person from pursuing their college and life dreams,” said Neal Noyes, the Executive Director of the Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission.
The new Great Expectations programs will be launched in summer 2010 and will join the area’s three existing Great Expectations programs at Southside, Danville, and Virginia Highlands Community Colleges.
“We are grateful for the Tobacco Commission’s partnership and leadership in this effort,” said Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginia’s Community Colleges. “Nationally, less than 2 percent of foster youth go on to finish college. We have to do better in Virginia and with the commission’s wise investment, we will.”
These programs will provide access to college education and workforce training for youth 18 - 24, along with wraparound support services, such as mentoring and academic counseling, to improve their chances of succeeding.
The need for this project is particularly pressing with Virginia having the highest percentage in the U.S. of teens aging out of the foster care system without any family support. They are, as a result, among Virginia’s most vulnerable young people, often homeless, and rarely successful in school or the workplace.
Great Expectations is geared toward increasing the percentage of foster youth who enroll in and complete a college or workforce training programs and, ultimately, increasing the percentage of foster youth employed in high demand, high wage careers.
For more information about Great Expectations, please visit GreatExpectations.vccs.edu.
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About Virginia’s Community Colleges: Created more than 40 years ago, the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) is comprised of 23 community colleges located on 40 campuses across the commonwealth. Together, Virginia’s Community Colleges serve more than a quarter-million credit students each year. For more information, please visit myfuture.vccs.edu.
About the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education: Working hand in hand with Virginia’s 23 community colleges, the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education seeks to guarantee financial assistance to all students who dream of attending college. The foundation is building an endowment that is already generating interest to provide full scholarships to selected community college students. Donors to the fund are invited to endow a single scholarship in their name and designate it to any of Virginia’s community colleges or regions. For more information, please visit www.vccs.edu/Foundation.
About the Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission: The Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission is a 31-member body created by the 1999 General Assembly to promote economic growth and development in tobacco-dependent communities, using proceeds of the national tobacco settlement. To date, the commission has awarded 1,088 grants totaling more than $534.1 million across the tobacco region of the commonwealth, and has made available nearly $268 million in indemnification payments to tobacco growers and quota holders. For information on the commission’s history, mission, funding programs and recent grant awards, visit our website at http://www.tic.virginia.gov/ or call toll-free 877-807-1086.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Jeffrey Kraus
Assistant Vice Chancellor for Public Relations
(804) 819-4949
jkraus@vccs.edu