香蕉福利直播 Pratt Center: Fostering Success, Leadership and Hope
Creating Familial Support, Outreach and Opportunity for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
When someone ages out of foster care, adjusting to life as an adult can be an unusually steep uphill climb鈥攅specially if they want to attend college. Personal and financial support are just the tip of the iceberg. For some, the idea of pursuing a degree feels overwhelming, if not completely out of reach.
That鈥檚 where The Pratt Center at 香蕉福利直播 comes in. Part of Campus Engagement, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, the center has been open since 2017.
, assistant vice president for inclusion and multicultural engagement at 香蕉福利直播 and founding director of 香蕉福利直播鈥檚 Sullivan-Deckard Scholars Opportunity Program, the center offers a to 鈥渓ean in鈥 and circumnavigate college together.
Located in Rhodes Tower, the center is reminiscent of other 鈥渟imilarly missioned鈥 student success centers at campuses across the country. The Pratt Center recognizes the value an on-site integrated space to support academic growth, leadership, development and retention for those of who have lacked a traditional support system.
The center鈥檚 鈥淔ostering Success and Leadership鈥 programs are designed for youth who are aging out of foster care (or have experienced foster care) and aspire to pursue an undergraduate degree. Pratt鈥檚 trained Student Navigators specialize in a variety of academic related subjects, all to aid 香蕉福利直播 students with high quality support.
The center also has scholarship offerings, created initially through gifts by the Sullivan and Deckard families, which served as the catalyst to increase post-secondary opportunities and help with books, resources, meal plans, gap tuition assistance, transitional supports and more.
The Pratt Center Meets the COVID-19 Era
As if the challenges described above weren鈥檛 difficult enough for the Center and its students, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic threatened to derail stability. It鈥檚 hard to lean in and social distance.
Strategic planning to preserve the interpersonal connection between student, mentors and programs began almost immediately, including hundreds of hours of remote teaching, virtual coaching and tutoring, wellness sessions, graduation celebrations, leadership training and more.
The Center also extended their outreach models in other ways鈥攊ncluding a coordinated effort in 16-week remote dining plan with 香蕉福利直播 catering, as well as biweekly care packages including grocery cards, hygiene products, cleaning supplies, sheets, towels and more.
Then there was the development of a three-credit hour course that promoted the exploration of daily living in occupations of emerging and young adults. The course provided an alternative set of resources for scholars unable to physically meet in the Pratt Center for similar services as a result of the pandemic.
Although Vikings have returned to campus, much of the Pratt pivot that happened over the last 18 months resulted in outreach models that continue, including the recent 鈥淥peration: Grab & Gobble鈥 initiative that took place around Thanksgiving.
A New Kind of Thankful
鈥淎t the end of October, Sullivan-Decker scholars that meet biweekly to check-in discovered that the traditional statewide dinners for transition-age youth were canceled due to COVID protocol,鈥 said Jarrett Pratt, M.Ed., director of Student Success at The Pratt Center and son of Dr. Charlyese Pratt.
鈥淔or a young person who is in foster care, these are already not the happiest times of the year. And with the residence halls being closed during holidays, the net effect is that a lot of students watch their peers pack up and go home to be with families,鈥 Pratt said. 鈥淎nd they don鈥檛 have that.鈥
He knew that he and his constituents had to act.
鈥淭hose [dinner] get-togethers are so important when it comes to nurturing community and fellowship. We knew we had to do something鈥攅ven despite social restrictions and distancing,鈥 said Pratt. 鈥淲hen decisions like that are made, for those who are already distressed, you can imagine what the ripple effect is鈥攁nd because of the pandemic, it continues to multiply.鈥
Thus, 鈥極peration: Grab & Gobble鈥 was born. A sort of 鈥渘iche intervention of hope, so to speak, that protects and serves the community at the very same time.鈥
Experiential, Engaged Learning
One of the tenets of the center is 鈥渟ervice learning,鈥 and in that vein, students created care packages for 50 foster care recipients which were distributed on Saturday, November 20. Hot meals, letters of hope, encouraging messages, and applications to the program were also distributed, along with a range of cold-weather gear. Though not a replacement for what was lost with dinner cancelations, there was immense value on many levels for recipients at a pivotal moment.
Pratt Center students 鈥渟aw the immediate impact on people who are not far removed from situations that they might鈥檝e found themselves in,鈥 said Pratt. 鈥淚t just so happens that 31 of those 50 happened to be identified by Cuyahoga County as either homeless or 鈥榟ousing insecure,鈥 some of the neediest persons out there.
鈥淲e want them to know that somebody is thinking about them,鈥 Pratt added. 鈥淭he message is, 鈥榊ou can still graduate and there鈥檚 a place for you here.鈥欌 He believes there will be similar initiatives to 鈥淥peration: Grab & Gobble鈥 every winter going forward.
It Takes a Village
Pratt was struck by immediate buy-in from the regional community, the state, Ohio Reach, Ohio Youth Alliance, Adoption Network, YMCA Cuyahoga County, National Council of Jewish Women鈥攅ssentially all the partnerships that help make the center so incredibly effective at what it offers.
Struck, but also grateful, pleased and not entirely surprised. After all, none of what The Pratt Center does happens in a vacuum, he said. And it shouldn鈥檛 be that way for those who are in foster care, either.
鈥淔amily is the connection that they desperately need to reestablish,鈥 he said.
鈥淚n that sense, 香蕉福利直播 and our partners really are, and can become, that family for those transitioning out of foster care. We are that delicate balance between offering help and not 鈥榞etting in the way,鈥 and we are grateful that the community sees what we are doing.鈥
That only reinforces the message that 鈥淣ortheast Ohio really has something special going on,鈥 Pratt said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e never going to be able to completely dissolve the need for what we provide. But if we can get to the eighth, ninth and tenth grader, get familiar with what they鈥檙e curious about, help them understand that they鈥檙e not hopeless or lost, and we can help them see that there is community for them that knows where they鈥檙e coming from? Where they鈥檙e at? That kind of intervention offers promise,鈥 Pratt finalized.
鈥淲e all want to see them graduate and succeed.鈥