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Every year, over 2,000 former foster youth will embark on their college journey alone. These amazing students have overcome tremendous obstacles to get to college (only 10% of foster youth go to college and only 3% will graduate). Despite making it to this milestone moment, most of these young people won't have anyone there to mark the occasion or help move them into their dorms on college move-in day.
The Phoenix 100 Rotary Club has partnered with Project Dorm Room (PDR) and the ASU Bridging Success Team (a campus resource specifically for ASU foster youth) to ensure that no foster youth will experience move-in day alone.
Project Dorm Room is a project of the Ready to Succeed organization, which is a 501 3(c) charity committed to providing resources and support to students facing challenges in accessing higher education. Their mission is to empower students to overcome obstacles and achieve their academic goals. Project Dorm Room is based in California and supports foster youth entering the California University System and has expanded into Arizona to support ASU.
Project Dorm Room purchases the supplies in bulk for the California and ASU Projects. Last year Phoenix 100 purchased supplies through Project Dorm Room which shipped the items to Phoenix. The carefully curated bundles included a grey duffel bag, an XL twin fleece blanket, a pillow, an XL twin sheet set (consisting of one pillowcase, one flat sheet, and one fitted sheet), a set of grey towels (comprising one large bath towel, one medium hand towel, and one small face towel), a mesh shower caddy, a foldable large laundry basket, a mini desk fan with a clip, and a 6ft power strip with 8 outlets, 4 USB ports, and 3 side outlets. Last year 23 students benefited from this Rotary project.
The ASU Bridging Success Team identifies the former foster car students and helps coordinate the distribution of the duffle bags.
This year, Phoenix 100 members will place all the materials sourced into duffel bags (July), delivering the duffels to the students on move-in day (Around August 6th), and physically help the students unpack and move-in on move-in day if the student is open to it (Around August 6th).
The Phoenix Rotary 100 Club aims to expand the move-in supplies for the 2024 Fall Semester. The plan is to provide approximately 25 students with $200 worth of supplies each, totaling a budget of $5,000.
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