RIFPA receives $213,000 from UWRI to improve financial stability & independence among foster youth.
Award supports work of RIFPA’s ASPIRE program over three year grant award
East Providence, RI (January 21, 2010)
The Rhode Island Foster Parents Association (RIFPA) has received an award of $213,000 for its ASPIRE program. The award from the United Way of Rhode Island (UWRI) will be paid over three years and is earmarked for the IDA financial literacy program that emphasize building savings, increasing income, and gaining and sustaining assets.
The ASPIRE Initiative empowers youth in foster care to get on the path to economic self-sufficiency through financial literacy training, assistance in accessing employment and education services, and support in saving toward purchasing and sustaining, durable assets. The first step involves a 12 hour, classroom based, comprehensive financial literacy training.
ASPIRE utilizes a nationally recognized curriculum customized to meet the unique needs of youth in foster care developed by the Nation Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative. The financial literacy class culminates in youth opening Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) on the last day of classes, in which savings are matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000 per year toward the purchase of durables assets. According to the FDIC Quarterly, the strategy of offering IDAs to under-banked populations shows extraordinary promise as a means of attracting these households to the banking business and avoiding costly non-bank financial transactions. We work in partnership with local banks and credit unions to facilitate the opening of accounts at the end of class.
The ASPIRE Initiative is more than just financial literacy training. We believe it is important to ensure the youth in and aging out of foster care have a solid foundation underneath them to become successful adults they need access to community resources and supports. The ASPIRE Initiative’s key strategies that support youth’s ability to become financially successful adults include increased opportunities for youth engagement, increased permanency, actively involving systems disseminating best practices, and galvanizing public will to focus on changing policy to provide needed supports for youth.
Locally developed opportunities for youth, called “Door Openers”, connect youth with the services or individuals who can help them to succeed, primarily in the areas of financial security, credit repair, and debt reduction, community resources and supports, education, housing, health, and employment. One-on-one asset specific coaching is offered to all youth in preparation of the purchase of their specified asset to ensue that youth have the knowledge and skills needed to make informed decisions. Through the youth leadership board, young people receive training and opportunities to network, communicate, and develop personal and systemic advocacy skills. Additionally, youth in need of permanent supportive adult relationships are referred to our Real Connections Program. The Real Connections Program believes that in order for youth to succeed into adulthood it is important for them to have a network of personal connections to rely on during transition and identified people that they can count on throughout their life. The Real Connections Program in collaboration with DCYF helps to identify and strengthen adult connection for youth in care along a continuum of permanency.
By providing a continuum of wrap-around services to youth in ASPIRE, youth are supported in their efforts to learn and implement sound financial management skills and are supported in their efforts to secure financial assets.
The ASPIRE Initiative works in a public/private partnership at the state and local level to provide more opportunities and improve outcomes in the areas of employment, education, housing, mental and physical health care, and personal and community engagement, for young people aging out of the foster are system. The ASPIRE Initiative recognizes that young people have a better chance of succeeding if they have strong support from their communities; and those systems partners - both public and private - are best informed of the needs of older youth in care by those young people themselves.
Kat Keenan, ASPIRE Initiative Director at the Rhode Island Foster Parents Association, welcomed this critical investment in the ASPIRE Initiative stating, “For youth in and aging out of foster care, the financial literacy education and applied learning in sound financial practice is a critical step in their successful transition to adulthood. We look forward to working in partnership with the United Way of RI to deliver quality financial stability programs to some Rhode Island’s most vulnerable youth.
The mission of the Rhode Island Foster Parents Association (RIFPA) is to provide education and other forms of support to families that provide substitute care and to the community at large, in order to further the cause of children who cannot live with their parents. As part of an integrated strategy, RIFPA identifies and addresses the gaps that separate state agencies, foster families, and children in need of care. We harness existing statewide infrastructures around employment, financial literacy and savings, and adult supports to meet the needs of disenfranchised youth without duplicating efforts.
For more information about Rhode Island Foster Parents Association or its ASPIRE program, please contact Lisa Guillette at (401) 438-3900 x104.
Click here for the full press release from the United Way of Rhode Island.
