First College Sponsorship awards
Each year UFC awards 40-50 college sponsorships with a combined value of over $450,000 per year for up to five years. UFC has helped to offset the financial burden of college for hundreds of former foster youth attending colleges and universities around the country.
Sponsorships valued at over $450,000 per year
First annual Celebration Graduation ceremony
UFC co-sponsors Celebration Graduation with the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Department of Children and Family Services, Department of Probation, The Teague Family Foundation, and Casey Family Programs each year. The event honors the academic achievements of foster youth who graduate from high school with a 2.8 grade point average or higher and with plans to attend a college, university, trade or vocational school.
UFC begins focusing on emancipation issues
Each year more than 1,400 foster youth age out of the Los Angeles foster care system unprepared for self-sufficiency. Emancipated youth face independence alone, without the benefit of enduring early relationships, role modeling, or the support (financial as well as emotional) of family and community members. It’s hard to imagine that there was ever a day when services were not available to emancipated foster youth, but it was 1999 before the Foster Care Independence Act was passed, legislating federal financial support for former foster youth