A Model HBCU Program Nurtures Students Who Have Experienced Foster Care

At Liv­ing­stone Col­lege, stu­dents who have aged out of fos­ter care are find­ing the sup­port they need to stay in school and thrive. The pri­vate, his­tor­i­cal­ly Black col­lege in Sal­is­bury, North Car­oli­na, offers a cam­pus sup­port pro­gram tai­lored to their needs. The ini­tia­tive was found­ed in Octo­ber 2022 by Livingstone’s 13^th pres­i­dent, Antho­ny J. Davis, Ph.D., who under­stands the jour­ney first­hand after nav­i­gat­ing col­lege him­self fol­low­ing time in fos­ter care. The H.O.P.E. Eman­ci­pa­tion Project — which stands for heal­ing, oppor­tu­ni­ty, prepa­ra­tion and empow­er­ment — reflects Davis’ lived expe­ri­ences and the college’s com­mit­ment to stu­dent success. 

The H.O.P.E. cam­pus sup­port pro­gram meets these chal­lenges with a holis­tic, year-round approach that pro­vides sta­bil­i­ty, struc­ture and strong rela­tion­ships, with an invest­ment of about $35,000 per student: 

• dai­ly meals pre­pared by a cam­pus chef;
• full cov­er­age of tuition and fees;
• coor­di­nat­ed men­tal health care;
• year-round, on-cam­pus hous­ing, with oppor­tu­ni­ties to live with oth­er Pres­i­dent 13 scholars;
• month­ly cohort meet­ings for peer con­nec­tion and mentoring;
• a trained and cer­ti­fied suc­cess coach;
• bi-week­ly progress reviews;
• access to tutor­ing through the Cam­pus Suc­cess Cen­ter; and
• con­nec­tion to Liv­ing­stone College’s Career Readi­ness Institute.

Since June 2024, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has sup­port­ed imple­men­ta­tion through tech­ni­cal assis­tance, train­ing and lim­it­ed fund­ing for per­son­nel and pro­gram participants. 

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