Grants to New Jersey businesses and nonprofits in Burlington, Mercer, and Union Counties for educational assistance to teens and young adults involved with the child welfare system. January 12 is the deadline to submit questions. On January 14 a mandatory bidders conference will be held. Applicants must be based in and very familiar with the youth services in their County.

The awarded program will be responsible for working directly with youth, ages 14-21, families, resource families/foster parents, educational stakeholders, other service providers, and community organizations. The awarded program will also be expected to work in close collaboration with the Connecting YOUth team and its national partners: the Center for the Study of Social Policy, CSH and Child Trends. In addition, they will be asked to participate in the County Based Implementation Committee in their county.

The Department of Children and Families (DCF) proposes to develop and implement the Connect to Achievement intervention designed to establish:

1) Structured educational advocacy and planning through Educational Champions (Component 2A). Educational Champions will strengthen local partnerships with education stakeholders, linkage to educational programming and supports (i.e. tutoring, college-bound programming), conferencing educational needs and goals of youth with CP&P staff and team members, securing and utilizing education records and data in planning, and tracking educational outcomes. Educational advocacy is defined by, but not limited to, the following criteria:

a. Catalog community resources
b. Build connections to community resources (i.e. supplemental education programs, tutoring, college-bound programming)
c. Support workers in connecting to resources
d. Network with local school districts to:
i. Create access to staff and resources
ii. Acquire data on students
e. Involvement in viewing/ensuring youth’s education information is current/accurate in NJ Spirit (CP&P information system)
f. Create Education Passport
g. Case Conference on specific youth
h. Available resource to youth/worker as needed
i. Intensified case management for youth at risk of failing/dropping out

2) Informal connections through mentoring that help coach and challenge youth to realize their potential and achieve their academic and career goals (Component 2B). The program will recruit and train “Near Peer” mentors recruited through post-secondary settings and “Professional” mentors recruited in a youth’s local community. Connections to these mentors will ensure youth have the stability and support (community, school and child welfare) necessary to achieve academic success and to have access to post-secondary or technical school opportunities.