Educational Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目的是生产，测试和评估使用多媒体程序的寄养青年和成年人谁照顾他们。该方案将把寄养和集体家庭居民（青年）、寄养和集体家庭父母、其他照顾者和青年服务专业人员与信息和资源联系起来，使寄养青年更容易获得中学后教育机会。抢先体验信息和资源将有助于提高寄养青年和周围成年人的期望，即某种形式的中学后教育（高中后的教育）是一个可以实现的目标。我们将在两个主要领域组织内容，国家和州的具体，和七个基本主题领域。青少年和成年人将通过使用On Your Way CD-Rom、DVD和指南以及通过On Your Way.org网站的综合信息数据库获得信息。 在第一阶段，我们开发了On Your Way CD-ROM、两个介绍性视频、DVD和指南的框架设计，以及On Your Way.org网站。On Your Way程序原型建立在CD-ROM（版本1.0）上。可行性和评估研究的参与者表明，13-23岁的寄养青年对完成的方案的设计和概念非常感兴趣和兴奋。我们还能够确定研究参与者访问和使用互联网技术的显著比率。 在第二阶段，我们将全面开发On Your Way光盘、DVD和指南以及网站。评价研究将侧重于多媒体资料包的所有三个方面。已经制定了几个目标来指导我们的研究活动： 1.提高寄养青少年及其照顾者/父母对高中毕业后教育的可获得性和可负担性的认识; 2.传播目前关于可供寄养青年使用的学校类型、入学、住房、学校支助、奖学金和贷款信息（财政援助）的零散信息; 3.制定和评估多媒体节目在农村和城市以及家庭和群体环境中对寄养青年及其照顾者/父母的影响; 4.随着时间的推移收集数据，以确定材料的教育价值和用户开发或扩展中学后教育计划的动机。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this project is to produce, test, and evaluate the use of a multimedia program for foster youths and adults who care for them. The program will connect foster and group home residents (youths), foster and group home parents, other caregivers, and youth serving professionals with information and resources to make post secondary educational opportunities for foster youths more attainable. Early access to information and resources will serve to raise expectations among foster youths and adults surrounding them that some form of post-secondary education (education after high school) is an achievable goal. We will organize content in two major areas, national and state specific, and seven basic topic areas. Youths and adults will receive information by using an On Your Way CD-Rom, DVD and Guidebook, and comprehensive informational databases through the On Your Way.org website. In Phase I, we developed the On Your Way CD-Rom, two introductory videos, and framework design for the DVD and Guidebook, and On Your Way.org website. The On Your Way program prototype was built on a CD-Rom (version 1.0). Participants in the feasibility and evaluation studies showed that foster care youths from 13-23 were very interested and excited about the design and concept for the completed program. We were also able to determine significant rates of access and use of Internet technologies among participants in the study. In Phase II, we will fully develop the On Your Way CD-Rom, DVD and Guide, and website. The evaluation study will focus on all three aspects of the multimedia package. Several objectives have been developed to guide our research activities: 1. Raise awareness among foster care youths and their caregivers/parents regarding the accessibility and affordability of education after high school; 2. Disseminate currently fragmented information regarding types of schools, admissions, housing, school supports, scholarship and loan information (financial aid), available to foster youths; 3. Develop and evaluate effectiveness of multimedia programming in reaching foster care youths and their caregivers/parents in both rural and urban and family and group settings; 4. Gather data over time to determine the educational value of the materials and motivation of users to develop or extend post secondary education plans.