Fostering Attainment Through Educational Supports (FATES)

Overview

Too often, the high educational aspirations of underrepresented (e.g., low-income or students of color) and under resourced (e.g., youth formerly in foster care) students are perturbed by systemic barriers, such as affordability, institutionalized racism, lack of mentors, and more. The Fostering Attainment Through Educational Supports (FATES) Workshop has one goal: To remove barriers to educational attainment for marginalized students through the application of research. Strategies for achieving this goal include: translating existing research for practitioners and policy makers; conducting original research and applying it; and using the Workshop as a vehicle for engaging, mentoring, and guiding students who have high aspirations but may themselves face systemic barriers to achievement.

FATES Dashboard: Mapping the Landscape of Campus Support Programs for Youth Formerly in Foster Care

Fostering Attainment Through Educational Supports (FATES) will collect data on how non-profit, two- and four-year postsecondary institutions (3,515 in all) support youth formerly in foster care (YFFC) in attaining an associate’s or baccalaureate degree. Data to be collected are (a) whether the needs of YFFC are included in institutional pandemic planning, including recovery; (b) whether an institution has a campus support program; (c) where the program is housed organizationally; (d) if available, what is the budget for the for the program; and (d) and what forms of support (e.g., financial aid, academic advising) are offered, if any. Collectively, these data will be aggregated into an interactive tool (the FATES Dashboard), providing the first national portrait of institutional efforts to help more YFFC graduate college. The Dashboard is intended for three audiences: practitioners, policy makers, and researchers. The goal of this project is to provide information to support systemic change across institutions to help more YFFC earn a college degree and to provide timely information during the pandemic recovery.

This initiative is supported through a generous grant from ECMC Foundation.

Get Involved

FATES welcomes student volunteers who can commit at least 3 hours a week to working on research with our team. The benefits to you as a student are many, including:

• Participating in a collaborative community of researchers and practitioners committed to educational equity;
• Mentoring and hands-on experience conducting research on multiple topics;
• Having the opportunity to write and be involved in publishing research briefs, working papers, and journal articles;
• Having the opportunity to write and be involved in publishing research briefs, working papers, and journal articles;
• Receiving training in conducting literature reviews, navigating human subjects approvals, analyzing data, and communicating to practitioners and policy makers.

Students who express interest and can commit to contributing to the work will first undergo an informal interview with the the Project Director, Dr. Jacob Gross. If both agree it is a good fit, you will be asked to join our work and begin your onboarding and training.

If you are interested in getting involved, e-mail fates@louisville.edu to learn more and talk!

Research

Currently we are collecting data about campus plans to support youth formerly in foster care during and after the pandemic as well as what support programs are in place.

Factors Associated With Receipt of Financial Aid Among Youth Formerly in Foster Care

This is presentation given at the Student Financial Aid Research Network (SFARN) Conference, June 4, 2021. The study presented explores what factors relate to whether or not a youth in foster care received financial aid to attend postsecondary education.

View Central Research Page

Advisory Board