As our students are settling into the routine of being back at school there is one group of Alaskan kids whose life is anything but routine – and a youth driven group is asking folks to help.
Facing Foster Care in Alaska (FFCA) is collecting gently used laptops, and funds to buy new ones, for the near 3,000 Alaskan youth who are in foster care every month.
The program has placed hundred of laptops with foster youth over the last few years, and the benefits of this program are starting to show – significantly more foster youth are graduating from high school, many from online programs.
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| Representative Les Gara and Amanda Metivier |
FFCA Amanda Metivier: “Maybe they get behind because they are moving or whatever happens in their family home before they come into foster care, this allows them the opportunity to catch up through online programs or even get ahead.”
Nationally, only 50% of foster youth graduate from high school. The deck is stacked against them with some Alaskan students experiencing 20 or more foster home placements – which translates to frequent school changes.
Without access to technology and essential items, and twice the emotional problems as their peers, research shows that foster children face a growing digital divide with more than 80% of foster youth not having consistent access to a computer.
Representative Les Gara (D D-20) feels that computer technology and access to the Internet are now a part of everyday education, social interaction, and fundamental to building technology skills needed in the workplace.
Representative Les Gara: “It normalizes a very disrupted life and is necessary if you want kids to succeed.”
Story as aired on KRSM News:
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