Educate Tomorrow, a national nonprofit based in Miami, Florida, has expanded programming to Michigan through the acquisition of Fostering Success Michigan (FSM), a Michigan-based statewide program.
The mission of Educate Tomorrow is to have a positive and enduring impact on youth with experience in foster care and homelessness, focused on college access and success, helping them mature into strong, contributing members of society. Educate Tomorrow utilizes individualized coaching to improve academics, economic stability, access to stable and affordable housing, and physical and emotional well being of those served.
In addition to providing direct services, Educate Tomorrow also operates statewide professional networks of college and university staff who directly serve students from foster care or experiencing homelessness. Through networking, training, and technical assistance, Educate Tomorrow builds the capacity of its network members so they can further ensure the academic success of their students and increasing graduation and persistence rates. Educate Tomorrow facilitates The Positive Pathway’s Program, the statewide initiative in Florida funded through the Department of Children and Families.
The decision to acquire Fostering Success Michigan culminated from long term partnership and collaboration according to Brett McNaught, CEO of Educate Tomorrow.
“Over years of partnership, synergy became clear, and it was evident that combining in this way would allow both programs to become stronger,” says McNaught. “The acquisition represents an innovative, multistate collaboration focused on identification of best practices and programming, sharing of resources, and long-term sustainability for campus-based support programs and backbone organizations, both statewide and nationally.”
Karie Ward, Director of Fostering Success Michigan, will remain in her position to oversee the statewide initiative.
“Fostering Success Michigan has had many successes over the past 9 years,” Ward says, “and I am thankful to our past funders The Kresge Foundation, The Havirmill Foundation, Western Michigan University, and The New Foster Care for supporting our work. Most importantly, I’m thankful to the FSM Network participants who have remained steadfast and committed to changing the narrative of students with experience in foster care in Michigan. Fostering Success Michigan under the Educate Tomorrow umbrella gives us an opportunity to expand the depth and breadth of our work and provides long term sustainability for the initiative.”
The statewide network, Fostering Success Michigan, was created in 2012 in response to the high volume of interest in campus-based programming for students. Some of the accomplishments of Fostering Success Michigan to date include:
Growth from five to over 30 Michigan higher education institutions with on campus support for students with experience in foster care, serving an average of 350 students annually and supporting more than 320 students to graduation since 2012.
Establishment of the website fosteringsuccessmichigan.com, which has become a leading national resource for those working in foster care and higher education and is the host site for the National Postsecondary Support Map.
Creation of action networks specific to the engagement of higher education institutions and policy advocacy.
For more information visit EducateTomorrow.org and FosteringSuccessMichigan.com.