Fostering Education Initiative Hosts Open House on October 29

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Oct. 27, 2015 - PRLog -- In partnership with the Hillsborough, Pasco and Pinellas counties school districts, Eckerd’s Fostering Education Initiative provides school guidance counselors and social workers to Tampa Bay area foster children ages 0-18 in licensed care. Eckerd’s Education Specialists are available to help case managers, foster parents, and relatives navigate the system to connect youth to educational supports.

Research shows that it is far more cost efficient and effective to prevent at-risk youth from ever becoming involved with the juvenile justice or child welfare systems. Eckerd’s prevention services help promote healthy child development and strengthen families by intervening early in children’s lives to ensure lifelong success.

The primary objective of the Fostering Education Initiative is to ensure that each youth served by Eckerd Community Alternatives receives the appropriate educational supports necessary to achieve academic excellence. The goal is to help foster youth successfully transition to post-secondary institutions, including vocational and technical schools.

Services provided include:

• Quarterly training to case managers about services available to foster youth ages 0 to 5.
• Assistance for the various local Head Start/Early Head Start programs.
• Assist in identifying additional educational resources necessary for children enrolled in grades K-12.
• Assist in enrolling youth in our on-site adult education program.
• Track the academic performance of all youth in-care to ensure they are connected to educational support needed to remain on track for graduation.

In addition to these great benefits, all of the services are free of charge and available to youth ages 0-18 currently being served by Eckerd Community Alternatives.  To be eligible, foster youth must live in Hillsborough, Pasco or Pinellas County, must be a client of Eckerd Community Alternatives and must reside in licensed foster care.

WHAT:          Fostering Education Initiative Open House

WHEN:          October 29, 2015 from 10:30 am – 2:30 pm

WHERE:       405 East Palm Avenue, Tampa, FL


About Eckerd:
Fostering Education Initiative: One of Eckerd’s Prevention Service Programs in Tampa Bayis a program of Eckerd, a national nonprofit organization headquartered in Clearwater, Florida, that has given much-needed second chances to more than 168,000 children and families since its founding by Jack and Ruth Eckerd in 1968. The Fostering Education Initiative provides school guidance counselors and social workers to Tampa Bay area foster children ages 0-18 in licensed care. Eckerd’s Education Specialists are available to help case managers, foster parents, and relatives navigate the system to connect youth to educational supports.