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Bridging the Gap: Implementing Equity-minded Academic and Mentoring Support Services for Foster Youth within University Writing Programs

International Perspectives in Social Justice Programs at the Institutional and Community Levels

ISBN: 978-1-80043-489-9, eISBN: 978-1-80043-488-2

Publication date: 9 April 2021

Abstract

The authors use their university and its writing program as a case study to interrogate established wraparound support systems for foster youth and the role that additional, volunteer faculty – led support services can play in retention and graduation rates. This chapter first provides research on college-going foster youth in the United States. Then, it considers the foster youth population and established support programs at the University of California, Riverside. Next, this chapter reviews the benefits of faculty – student mentoring and tutoring, specifically in composition studies, and how those benefits can contribute to a successful college-going experience. The chapter then shifts to offering a model for those interested in establishing a similar program. Using business, communication, composition, education, and psychosocial theory to ground the discussion, the authors provide a detailed account of the proposal, implementation, and ongoing programmatic administration processes, including the rationale undergirding decision-making. Ultimately, they show how equitable supplemental academic support led by composition faculty can bridge the gap between existing foster youth services and outstanding needs, an innovative approach that relies on the natural mentoring relationships which organically evolve from faculty–student interaction.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank the Office of Foster Youth Support Services and Guardian Scholars and their executive director, Tuppett Yates, and director, Kenyon Lee Whitman, as well as TRIO Scholars and its director, Norman Borgonia, for their willingness to share their respective programs’ unpublished data and professional insights.

Citation

Beehler, P. and Moore, R. (2021), "Bridging the Gap: Implementing Equity-minded Academic and Mentoring Support Services for Foster Youth within University Writing Programs", Sengupta, E. and Blessinger, P. (Ed.) International Perspectives in Social Justice Programs at the Institutional and Community Levels (Innovations in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Vol. 37), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 129-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2055-364120210000037009

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited