College of St. Joseph

College of St. Joseph in Rutland, Vermont received a $60,000 challenge grant from the J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation to assist with the college’s STEPS Program. This challenge grant is designed to invite other Vermont philanthropists to contribute up to a total of $60,000 to this fund that is designated for the College of St. Joseph STEPS Program. STEPS (Students Taking an Effective Path to Success) is a unique program designed specifically to meet the needs of Vermont foster youth transitioning to college.

This is the second gift from the McClure Foundation, as they contributed $80,000 in the fall of 2008 to help launch this program. The program not only provides for the academic needs of these students, but also provides extensive counseling services for this high-risk group, allows them to live on campus year round, and also provides extensive career counseling, internship placements and preparation to become a strong and valuable member of society.

The faculty, staff and trustees at the College of St. Joseph are committed to this project on every level. As College President Frank Miglorie developed the plans for this program, he and other administrators and faculty saw the clear connection to the College’s mission. They concluded that CSJ’s role in helping these young people, who otherwise would have very little hope of pursuing a college education or developing a worthwhile career path, will truly make a difference in their lives.

The current research on this segment of the Vermont population suggests that there are approximately 1,400 children in foster care. Of these, 57% experienced three or more foster care placements while in the system. Vermont rates as the sixth highest among the fifty states for the percentage of youth in foster care and actually has the highest percentage of children in foster care of any state east of the Mississippi, according to the Annie E. Casey Foundation report, Kids Count, 2006.

In a 2006 report by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, only about 10% of youth who have grown up in the foster care system enroll in some form of post-secondary education. This is largely due to not having a family or other role model with college experience, lack of individual resources, no knowledge of available resources or how to access them, and the lack of support systems to instill and nurture a belief in the possibility of college for young people who are in the foster care system.

The ultimate goal of the STEPS Program is to have students transitioning out of foster care each year find a new direction with all of the necessary personal, counseling, housing and activity support that is needed to help this special group of young Vermonters succeed. President Miglorie states, “One of the greatest measures of the outcomes of this new program will be the students themselves, as we see them grow and become independent and prepared for a successful place in society.”

The College is grateful to the J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation for recognizing the importance of this program and for the philanthropic support they have provided to the STEPS program at College of St. Joseph. These monies, along with the challenge to other philanthropists in the state, will help to keep this important program thriving. The program at CSJ is the first of its kind in New England, and the hope is with its success, other states will use this as a model that can be replicated to better serve the needs of foster youth throughout the nation.