Educational Opportunities for Youth in Foster Care

描述(由申请人提供)：本项目的目的是为照顾他们的寄养青少年和成年人制作、测试和评估多媒体程序的使用情况。该计划将为寄养和团体之家居民(青少年)、寄养和团体之家父母、其他照顾者和青年服务专业人员提供信息和资源，使寄养青年更有可能获得高等教育机会。及早获得信息和资源将有助于提高寄养青年和他们周围的成年人的期望，即某种形式的中学后教育(高中后教育)是可以实现的目标。我们将在国家和州两大领域和七个基本主题领域组织内容。青少年和成年人将通过使用An An Your Way CD-Rom、DVD和指南以及通过On Your Way.org网站获得全面的信息数据库来获得信息。 在第一阶段，我们开发了An Your Way CD-Rom、两个介绍性视频以及DVD和指南的框架设计，并在您的Way.org网站上进行了开发。On Your Way计划原型是在CD-Rom(1.0版)上构建的。可行性和评估研究的参与者显示，13-23岁的寄养青少年对完成的计划的设计和概念非常感兴趣和兴奋。我们还能够确定参与研究的参与者中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An Your Way CD-Rom、DVD和指南以及网站。评估研究将集中在多媒体包的所有三个方面。我们制定了几个目标来指导我们的研究活动： 1.提高寄养青年及其照顾者/父母对高中毕业后教育的可及性和可负担性的认识； 2.传播目前零散的关于学校类型、招生、住房、学校支助、奖学金和贷款信息(财政援助)的信息，供寄养青年使用； 3.在农村和城市以及家庭和团体环境中开发和评估多媒体节目在接触寄养青少年及其照顾者/父母方面的有效性； 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制定或扩展高等教育计划的动机。

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.