Official boards bicycle for foster children

Glenn DuBois, chancellor of the Virginia Community College System, is climbing aboard his bicycle in hopes of raising expectations for the 8,000 children in Virginia’s foster care system.

As they “age out” of foster care programs at the age of 18, most foster children will not be attending college or be able to obtain jobs that will give them a livable income.

According to the Virginia Foundation for Community College Education, Virginia has more teens aging out of foster care than any other state — more than 500 teens annually who suddenly are out of foster care and have no permanent home to go to.

Though there is a tuition grant program for foster children who have graduated from high school or have earned a GED, not enough children hear about it or take advantage of it, according to DuBois.

The VCCS has launched an initiative called Great Expectations that will reach out to foster children between the ages of 13 and 17. It will offer five after-school programs that will address the needs of these students with life skills training, career education, financial literacy and other necessary skills.

DuBois is spending his summer vacation bicycling to seven Virginia community colleges to raise awareness of — and funds for — Great Expectations, which will launch as a pilot program at five of the state’s community colleges this year.

Danville Community College is one of the colleges already geared up to take on the program.

DuBois biked from Martinsville, where he spent Thursday at Patrick Henry Community College, to Danville on Friday, making the 48-mile trip in about four hours.

He told the group of teachers,

students and board members who met him at DCC that the program is designed to “respond to unmet community needs and unmet state needs.”

DuBois said the VCCS has already raised $1.7 million for the initiative and has an initial goal of $10 million. He told the group that the initiative has one benefactor who has pledged $1 million for the program, donating one dollar for every four the VCCS raises.

His mission on this trip is to raise awareness of the situation. DuBois said most foster children run from the system the minute they can, leaving behind many opportunities that would kick in when they age out of the formal program.

“What’s frustrating is that they run from a lot of resources that would help them go to college if they would only stay in foster care status — for independent living, federal money kicks in, state money kicks in,” DuBois said. “But it’s all pretty much left on the table because less than 5 percent (of children in Virginia’s foster care system) will stay.”

He is determined to change that.

“Our job is to look for unmet needs and step up if we can,” DuBois said. “We can do something.”

DuBois leaves Danville Saturday morning for the next leg of his trip, taking the River Road/Kentuck route to Halifax County, where he will visit the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center in South Boston.

Three more stops are scheduled — at Southside Virginia Community College’s Alberta campus, Paul D. Camp Community College in Franklin and Tidewater Community College’s Chesapeake Campus — before DuBois returns home on July 13.

To find out more about the initiative, visit www.greatexpectations.vccs.edu.

Contact Denice Thibodeau at dthibodeau@registerbee.com or (434) 791-7985.