Foster youth perceptions of resiliency and their use of campus support programming at a community college

Less than 5% of foster youth make it to college. Once in college, foster youth are more likely to drop-out during their first year (21% for foster youth in comparison to 13% for non-foster youth) and 34% of those who persist beyond their first year in college likely to drop out of school prior to degree completion. This educational deficit must be addressed. In an effort to provide assistance for foster youth to persist in postsecondary education, legislation has been passed to support educational success among foster youth. In addition, campus support programs have been established to provide various assistance for foster youth such as academic preparation and support, financial assistance, housing assistance, academic and non-academic intervention, emergency assistance, counseling services, and social networks. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore foster youths’ perceptions of resiliency and use of campus support programming to assist their resilience at a public community college. The overarching framework guiding this study was resilience theory and anti-deficit achievement framework. Research was conducted at a public community college who offers marketable skills, certificates, and associates degrees through multiple modalities. The participants in this study were foster youth who had been adopted or aged out of the child welfare system, were attending a community college, utilizing an Educational Training Voucher, and accessing campus support programming.