The Foster Youth Education Fund empowers former foster youth in the Sacramento region to achieve their higher education dreams. We provide educational support for those who have successfully completed their high school education and who are entering or attending a two or four-year accredited college or university, or a technical/trade school. Because of the support we provide, 91% of our scholars complete the semester for which they received our support.
Since 2002, Foster Youth Education Fund has empowered former foster youth in the Sacramento region to achieve their higher education dreams. While there are many scholarship funds in the region, FYEF is the only known fund in the Sacramento, Yolo, Placer and El Dorado counties to focus exclusively on foster youth.
Through the generous support of our community, we have been able to provide former foster youth scholars’ funds for tuition, housing, books, computers, and campus transportation. In 2023, FYEF awarded $122,000 in scholarships to 62 former foster youth, assisting them in their pursuit of higher education and helping to break the cycle of adversity. With approximately 250 youth aging out of the foster care system in Sacramento County each year, the need for support is substantial. We seek to continue expanding our capacity to meet the needs of all foster youth exiting the foster care system with the Sacramento, El Dorado, Yolo and Placer county region.
FYEF continues to provide resources to our former foster youth scholars including our laptop distribution program to underscore the digital divide facing our foster youth, only 10% of them-compared to 90% of all college students-report having a personal computer, a most necessary tool to achieve academic success in our current higher education environment.
Beyond the classroom, FYEF strives to enrich the lives of our scholars by partnering with the Sacramento region sports and entertainment communities including the Sacramento Kings, the Sacramento River Cats, Sacramento Speaker Series, and Broadway Sacramento.
FYEF is supported by our generous local charity foundations the Assistance League of Sacramento, National Charity League – Sacramento and the Deloitte Foundation.