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Fostering High-Quality Education for All

During these unprecedented times, Fostering High-Quality Education for All is honored to support underserved and underrepresented students in Central Florida, help close learning gaps, and provide vital services to elementary, middle, and high school students. We have positively impacted and served over 3,000 students, including exclusive partnerships with sixteen private schools and three after-school programs that primarily serve students of color from low-income areas. Our organization utilizes the SOAR Framework Coaching Tool to focus our schools’ and students’ attention on their strengths, opportunities, aspirations, and results. We use it at the outset as a way for students to pinpoint their core strengths, identify opportunities to achieve them, confirm their aspirations, and diagnose the results so they know how they will measure their progress and success. Our programs also utilize Appreciative Inquiry, which does not analyze the causes of problems and determine who is to blame; it focuses on identifying what is working well and doing more of it. We do not focus on the issue; instead, we examine what is working in the current situation, what has been achieved, and the conditions that made those successes possible. New ideas and possibilities appear that would never have been found by delving deeper and deeper into the problem. Most of the students we serve are underperforming, but there have to be some aspects that are working well. We strive to find out what those are and do more of them more often, and their performance is guaranteed to improve. We will identify the conditions for success and implement them more widely, thereby increasing the frequency of success. 

Foster Grants and Giving is committed to supporting remediation and literacy programs to impact our students' academic and youth development needs. Our programming will place a heavy emphasis on literacy, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), as well as civics, supported by data-driven analysis of assessment results. The personalized attention our students will receive from our tutoring programs will help pinpoint the root causes of their struggles while bridging gaps that will set them up for a future of academic success, ultimately leading to the goal of improving grade-level reading by the end of our programming. In addition, we provide brand-new books to underserved students and schools serving low-income African Americans and students of color, thereby creating classroom libraries and providing students with books to take home for winter, spring, and summer breaks. Most importantly, we take pride in being the backbone of our partnered schools by supporting teachers and students through the supply and distribution of high-quality instructional materials and technology, thereby enhancing teacher effectiveness and making the delivery of curriculum more coherent and aligned with standards. When teachers have the right resources, they can focus more on instruction, which benefits all students—especially those most in need. Our College Prep program focuses on College-Going Culture, which refers to the environment, attitudes, and practices in schools and communities that encourage students and families to obtain the information, tools, and perspective to enhance access to and success in postsecondary education. We play a crucial role in supporting and preparing our students with the resources they need to achieve their postsecondary school vision, goals, and dreams. While it is the student's responsibility to complete the work, we take on the responsibility of helping them navigate the complex process of preparing for and entering higher education, the military, trade schools, or direct hire opportunities. We also focus intently on career planning as a process for postsecondary graduation planning and aligning post-graduation career plans with the chosen institution to help students reach their goals quickly with minimal investment and the greatest return. We also engage in Career-Aligned Educational Activities, aligning career aspirations and educational programming that efficiently prepares students for postsecondary goals. Our test preparation programs have been highly successful. The SAT and ACT are essential, but due to systemic and cultural challenges, many of our students lack the GPA or test scores required to gain admission to a four-year university; we must also provide options for them. That option includes preparation for the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) and tutoring necessary to enter community colleges. PERT tutoring has been crucial because over 60% of the students we serve can only gain admission to a community college, and failing the PERT will result in them wasting money and resources they do not have, as they will have to take a high number of preparatory courses that do not count as college credit. We are helping students earn an AA or AS degree in 2-3 years, whereas many of those students, if they do not drop out, would typically need to take 2-4 semesters of preparatory courses alone and complete them in 4-5 years for a two-year degree. Along with free PERT, SAT, and ACT testing preparation, study guides, and tutoring, complimentary breakfast and lunch are provided during tutoring sessions. Additionally, students receive scientific calculators, up to five free college books for their first semester of college, gas cards, paid college application costs, and ACT/SAT waivers. Our high school program will develop critical thinking skills in our students to support their future higher education and post-high school career endeavors. As part of our high school programming, we teach Student Business, which equips underserved students with practical life skills, fosters critical thinking, and prepares them for real-world success across any career path, while developing financial literacy, leadership, problem-solving, and adaptability skills that are crucial in today’s challenging economy. Our business courses and projects focus on the fundamentals of business, economics, and financial literacy. We also take a deep dive into teaching students about Nonprofit Management, so they can one day provide the community with the same kind of help they are currently receiving. We teach students what it takes to build Strategic Capacity for organizations serving vulnerable communities, providing a multidimensional, holistic, dynamic, and flexible system that enables organizations to achieve their vision, mission, purpose, and goals, ultimately serving stakeholders more effectively. We teach our students nonprofit governance, strategic planning, program evaluation, financial management, grant readiness, performance accountability, program structures, performance measurement, budgeting, budgeting systems, costing programs, services, forecasting, differential cost analysis, grants, contracting, risk management, financial Statements, and audits. Our final programming initiative, and perhaps the most important, is our Financial Literacy programming, which equips our students with the knowledge, habits, and decision-making skills needed to manage money wisely throughout life. We use a curriculum that provides interactive scenarios to help students practice smart spending, saving, and entrepreneurship skills through realistic situations they’ll actually encounter. Utilizing a blend of instructional methods to maximize engagement and comprehension, we make sure to cover Financial Responsibility and Goal Setting, Budgeting and Money Management, Income, Careers, and Taxes, Banking and Financial Services, Credit and Debt Management, Consumer Awareness, Saving and Investing, Insurance and Risk Management, Housing and Major Purchases, and Retirement Planning.

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FREE FINANCIAL LITERACY CURRICULUM (CLICK HERE)

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