Our COVID-19 Response
For our coverage on how COVID-19 is specifically impacting student parents, please see our features in Inside Higher Ed, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, NBC4 Washington, Teen Vogue, and the Chronicle of Higher Education.
COVID-19 Update August 2, 2022
Health and safety remain paramount concerns for Generation Hope, and to that end, we are using this time to prepare for our return to in-person and hybrid work.
Our in-person programming has already resumed in accordance with CDC-recommended safety guidelines, with our Spring Events series in May and June, as well as our annual Hope Conference in June. These events celebrated our first time together in more than two years as well as the wonderful community of people that we have deeply missed connecting with in person during the pandemic. Seeing all of the people who make this organization so special has been such a gift. As we continue to hold more in-person gatherings, we look forward to reuniting with even more of you. We have not let the pandemic slow our commitment to impacting more young families in the D.C. region. This summer, we also announced our new class of Scholars, the largest in our history, and the largest cohort of Mentors who will walk alongside them in their college journeys.
Get to know our incoming Scholar Class!
4 teen fathers
44% attend four-year colleges
61% live in Maryland, 21% live in DC, and 18% live in Virginia
42% are Black, 38% are Latinx, 4% are multiracial, 2% are white, 2% are Asian, and 11% prefer not to say
As we welcome incoming Scholars, this Spring we also celebrated our 31 students who have earned a post-secondary credential. These incredible student parents worked on their degrees through the pandemic, demonstrating incredible resilience and tenacity. In June, we honored them during a Virtual Graduation, which we invite you to watch below. Be sure to leave a comment to cheer on our graduates!
We have also continued our work with colleges and universities to help create more family-friendly campuses across the country. Our first FamilyU Cohort has just welcomed their Student Parent Fellows to their teams to assist them in implementing their student parent efforts, and we announced seven new schools that will be participating in our second FamilyU Cohort over the next two years.
Central to everything we do here at Generation Hope is the voices of parenting college students. In the midst of uncertain times, these voices have continued to inspire us. We have been honored to feature them on our social media channels and on our blog and to support them in writing opinion pieces for major news outlets as a part of our policy and advocacy work.
How you can help:
Mentor
Mentor as an individual or in a group by becoming a Resource Family! Build a supportive, lasting relationship with a young parent pursuing their college degree and their pre-k little one. Learn more and apply.
Volunteer
Apply to be a childcare volunteer! We have an urgent need for childcare volunteers and hope to rebuild our volunteer corps after two years of virtual-only programming. Please sign up online. If you have any additional questions about these opportunities or eligibility, please reach out to Volunteer Coordinator J’Reisz Garcia at j’reisz@generationhope.org. Thank you in advance for volunteering with us!
Your donation can make a difference:
$25 provides a gift card to help a Scholar access critical needs like gas and groceries
$100 provides culturally-relevant, age-appropriate books to build the home library of a Next Generation Academy family
$500 provides training for new Scholars and their Mentors to equip them with the tools for successful, supportive mentoring relationships
$1,000 ensures 8 Scholars can participate in career-readiness programming
COVID-19 Update September 20, 2021
The upcoming school year brings a mix of emotions for the Generation Hope Community. The pandemic continues to take its toll on all of us - especially our Scholars and their children and student parents across the country. In the midst of the ongoing challenges, Generation Hope is also proud to have accepted our largest class of Scholars in Generation Hope’s history this summer. We are now working with 122 incredible teen parents in their journeys to earning their college degrees and securing jobs with family-sustaining wages. And, since each Generation Hope Scholar is matched with a Mentor, we also welcomed our largest group of Mentors as well!
Get to know our new Scholars and Mentors!
Fun Facts About Our New Scholars:
Fun Facts About Our New Mentors:
For the safety of our staff, Scholar families, and community, Generation Hope is continuing to provide our programming remotely, including our wraparound, whole-family support to our Scholars and their little ones and our technical assistance to higher ed organizations that are working to enhance their student parent supports. Our team is continuing to celebrate milestones, including welcoming 5 new staff members in July, convening virtually to bring our Scholars families together for our first Next Generation Academy family dinner of the year, shining a spotlight on our 10 Scholars who completed professional internships through our career-readiness program this summer, bringing our community together virtually by holding virtual storytime live on our Facebook page every Tuesday at 7:30 pm ET (which wrapped up the last week in August), and virtually launching our inaugural FamilyU Cohort in July!
#PregnantGirlBook updates:
Did you catch the rave review of Pregnant Girl in the New York Times? They write, "It should be required reading for every lawmaker who will vote on whether to make the current child tax credit permanent policy." Read the full review!
The Golden State Warrior MVP basketball player Stephen Curry has chosen Pregnant Girl as the September read for his Literati Book Club! Stephen Curry’s book club, “Underrated,” is an exploration of what it means to break barriers and defy the odds. Each month, Stephen selects stories that highlight diverse protagonists and social justice issues to inspire his readers to push boundaries. He seeks to highlight underrepresented authors—women, people of color, and other overlooked voices—whose stories bring fresh perspectives and hope to every reader.
Get your copy of Pregnant Girl anywhere books are sold (or here)!
Nicole Lynn Lewis, our Founder & CEO, has returned from maternity leave and is jumping right back into book talks! Interested in Nicole speaking at your event? Contact us.
How you can help:
Looking for an opportunity to get involved as a family, group of friends, or group of colleagues? Generation Hope group mentors, also known as Resource Families, provide support for teen parents in college and help their children build kindergarten readiness! Resource Families are made up of 2-4 individuals, meet six times a year for family dinners, and contribute directly to an early childhood fund. This is an amazing opportunity to have a lasting impact on a young family. Learn more and apply here: https://www.generationhope.org/mentor
Your donation can make a difference: Generation Hope Scholars continue to face mental health challenges, feelings of isolation/disconnection, issues with childcare and virtual learning, financial shortfalls, and navigating a new year of hybrid or remote learning and work.
$1,000 ensures 8 Scholars can participate in career-readiness programming
$500 provides training for new Scholars and their Mentors to equip them with the tools for successful, supportive mentoring relationships
$100 provides culturally-relevant, age-appropriate books to build the home library of a Next Generation Academy family
$25 provides a gift card to help a Scholar access critical needs like gas and groceries
COVID-19 Update February 2, 2021
Eleven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Generation Hope is continuing to provide wraparound, whole-family support remotely to our Scholars and their little ones.
Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, including balancing virtual college coursework and supporting their children’s remote learning, struggling to find safe and flexible work to support their families, and beyond, during the fall semester our Scholars achieved impressive milestones:
100% of Scholars who earned less than a 2.5 GPA during spring semester 2020 improved their GPA for fall semester 2020.
91% of 2020 grads were employed full time and/or in graduate school within 6 months of graduation.
78% of 2020 grads still had a relationship with their Sponsors 6 months after graduation.
70% of Scholars earned a 2.5 or greater GPA for the fall 2020 semester despite the challenges of the pandemic.
Thanks to the generous support of our incredible Generation Hope community, we surpassed our Giving Tuesday goal and raised $14,305. With YOUR support, we provided gift cards for our Scholars and wrapped holiday gifts for their little ones, hosted a socially-distant celebration in lieu of our annual holiday party, and ensured Scholars’ families’ basic needs were met during this incredibly challenging time.
How you can help:
Looking for an opportunity to get involved as a family, group of friends, or group of colleagues? Generation Hope group mentors, also known as Resource Families, provide support for teen parents in college and help their children build kindergarten readiness! Resource Families are made up of 2-4 individuals, meet six times a year for family dinners, and contribute directly to an early childhood fund. This is an amazing opportunity to have a lasting impact on a young family. Learn more and apply here: https://www.generationhope.org/mentor
Your donation can make a difference: Generation Hope Scholars continue to face mental health challenges, feelings of isolation/disconnection, issues with childcare and virtual learning, financial shortfalls, and navigating a new year of hybrid or remote learning and work.
$1,000 ensures 8 Scholars can participate in career-readiness programming
$500 provides training for new Scholars and their Mentors to equip them with the tools for successful, supportive mentoring relationships
$100 provides culturally-relevant, age-appropriate books to build the home library of a Next Generation Academy family
$25 provides a gift card to help a Scholar access critical needs like gas and groceries
COVID-19 Update February 2, 2021
Eleven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Generation Hope is continuing to provide wraparound, whole-family support remotely to our Scholars and their little ones.
Despite the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, including balancing virtual college coursework and supporting their children’s remote learning, struggling to find safe and flexible work to support their families, and beyond, during the fall semester our Scholars achieved impressive milestones:
100% of Scholars who earned less than a 2.5 GPA during spring semester 2020 improved their GPA for fall semester 2020.
91% of 2020 grads were employed full time and/or in graduate school within 6 months of graduation.
78% of 2020 grads still had a relationship with their Sponsors 6 months after graduation.
70% of Scholars earned a 2.5 or greater GPA for the fall 2020 semester despite the challenges of the pandemic.
Thanks to the generous support of our incredible Generation Hope community, we surpassed our Giving Tuesday goal and raised $14,305. With YOUR support, we provided gift cards for our Scholars and wrapped holiday gifts for their little ones, hosted a socially-distant celebration in lieu of our annual holiday party, and ensured Scholars’ families’ basic needs were met during this incredibly challenging time.
And, with our year-end fundraising appeal, you blew us away, helping us raise over $115,000 to power Generation Hope's life-changing work. Your support allowed us to start 2021 off strong during such unprecedented times. We are grateful for your generosity, and inspired by your belief in our mission. Thank you.
What does this mean for us in 2021? It means:
Increasing the number of young parents we can support in our Scholar Program and the number of children we can support through Next Generation Academy. Knowing that more young parents will need critical supports to get through college due to the pandemic, we have a goal to serve more Scholars than ever before in 2021.
Scaling up our work by providing technical assistance to colleges and universities so that parenting students everywhere can persist, thrive, and graduate.
Developing our first-ever advocacy agenda, directly informed by and co-created with our Scholars and student parents nationwide.
Deepening our career readiness support for Scholars through career counseling and workshops, networking via strong corporate partnerships, and robust summer internships.
As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, ensuring that our Scholars and their children have the support they need, including connections to community resources, creative virtual programming, and mental health support.
Though our day-to-day may look different, we are continuing to build community with virtual family dinners and home visits, Scholar check-ins and career readiness meetings, and of course, our #GHBedtimeStories virtual storytime with fun guest readers live on our Facebook page every Tuesday at 7 pm Eastern!
We have so many exciting things in the works for 2021 and we can’t wait to share them with you. In the meantime, if you are looking for ways to support our Scholar families at this time, see below.
How you can help:
Make a donation to power Generation Hope’s support of our Scholars and their little ones.
We’re recruiting our next class of Scholars! Know a teen parent in college? Share our Scholar application (Deadline is April 1).
Have you ever wanted to be a Mentor to one of our tenacious Scholars? Now is your chance! We have individual mentor and group mentorship (Resource Family) opportunities. Apply to be a Mentor or Resource Family today, or help spread the word!
Help meet basic needs for Scholar families by purchasing items on our Spring Scholar Wishlist—visit our Amazon wishlist here.donation
COVID-19 Update October 27, 2020
Generation Hope Scholars continue to inspire us as they persist in their studies this unprecedented fall semester, but, as Scholar A’ja said in a recent Washington Post article on college students with children, “It’s a lot to juggle” (read the full article here).
Parenting students are incredibly resilient and tenacious, but they are being stretched thin between class, work, and supporting their children’s virtual schooling. After navigating the pandemic for more than seven months, Scholars have reported lost jobs, difficulty meeting basic needs including food and housing, incidents of domestic violence, and ongoing challenges from loss of childcare. We also continue to see an increase in one-on-one sessions with our Mental Health Coordinator.
Our commitment to our Scholars continues. In addition to ensuring the continuity of our programming so our families stay on track to their goals, this week, we are distributing a second round of emergency funding to our families, totaling $36,000. These funds are critical as more than 70% of our Scholars say that financial support is their biggest need right now. donation
Scholars attending the panel on entrepreneurship during our Career Week in October, which we held virtually for the first time!
What we’ve been up to:
Higher ed toolkit: In order to support student parent success during this unprecedented year -- and beyond -- Generation Hope released a toolkit, funded by the Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation, with guidance for higher ed leadership, administrators, and professors. The toolkit details 10 concrete ways colleges and universities can support student parents facing acute challenges this year to ensure their college persistence and success.
Read about the toolkit in Inside Higher Ed
Scholar wishlist: In September and October, Generation Hope collected wishlist items to meet Scholars’ basic necessities like grocery gift cards, school supplies, and diapers for their little ones. With the outpouring of support from our Generation Hope community we were able to fulfill nearly all of our Scholars’ wishlist requests so they can focus on school and their family, rather than struggling to meet basic needs.
Virtual Coffee: Generation Hope hosted our first virtual coffee on October 6! It was wonderful to see so many of you (virtually). If you missed it, you can check out the recorded conversation here, featuring updates on how we’re supporting our Scholars through the pandemic, some exciting things in the works for Generation Hope this year, and Q&A.
Career Week: Also in October, Generation Hope held our first-ever virtual Career Week! Student parents have so much to offer professionally, and finding a job with a family-sustaining wage after graduation is critical. This year’s Career Week featured panels of various professionals (from nursing to entrepreneurship), mock interviews, resume reviews, and virtual networking time. Thank you to everyone who generously volunteered their time!
#GHBedtimeStories: In order to keep our Scholar Families encouraged and to build community during this time, Generation Hope has continued to hold weekly live virtual storytimes with guest readers on our Facebook page! Bring your little ones and tune in here!
How you can help:
Make a donation to power Generation Hope’s support of our Scholars and their little ones.
Purchase gift cards from our Amazon wishlist to help Scholars with basic needs during this time.
Mentor as a group (i.e. Resource Family) and build a supportive, lasting relationship with a young parent pursuing their college degree and their pre-k little one. Learn more & apply here, or email our Director of Programming, Caroline (caroline@supportgenerationhope.org) with any questions!
Our team is growing! Join our team, or share our open job postings. Check out open positions here.
COVID-19 Update August 17, 2020
The well-being of our Scholars and their children, our staff, volunteers, and the broader community is our top priority. To that end, Generation Hope will continue to operate in a fully remote capacity until January 2021. We will continue to offer almost all of our normal programming and support virtually.
Dr. Daria Willis, President of Everett Community College, joined Generation Hope as our guest reader for the #GHBedtimeStories virtual storyhour on Aug. 4.
What we’ve been up to:
This month we were thrilled to welcome Portia Polk to our team as Generation Hope’s first-ever Director of Learning & Advocacy. Portia will lead our new national impact work, including our policy and advocacy agenda and our technical assistance to help colleges and universities support student parent success. She joins us from Aspen Ascend where she worked with the Postsecondary Success for Parents Initiative and focused on the challenges and opportunities for parenting students on their journey towards postsecondary completion.
In the wake of the racial reckonings following the murder of George Floyd, Generation Hope has been hosted learning and listening sessions entitled We Are The Change: Conversations on Racial Equity with our Mentors and Scholars. You can read more about our recent and ongoing racial equity work here.
We also held our first ever virtual New Scholar and Sponsor Training, as well as our Summer Bridge training with Scholars entering their freshman year. Though we miss getting to meet everyone in person, we love seeing all of the new faces of this year’s cohort of Scholars (some of whom tuned in with their kiddos!).
We have continued to bring the Generation Hope community together, and to build connections with families across the country, through our #GHBedtimeStory virtual storyhours live each week on our Facebook page with fun new guest readers. Bring your kiddos and tune in for our next reading!
We’ve also been focusing our recent media coverage on centering the experiences and challenges of student parents heading into back to school season, and encouraging colleges and universities to keep this population in mind when making fall semester decisions.
Making Student Parents the Norm Requires Facing Systemic Racism by Nicole Lynn Lewis - Aspen Ascend, August 12, 2020
‘It’s not just double duty, it’s triple duty’: Student-parents prepare to juggle college, work and childcare this fall - MarketWatch, August 12, 2020
Making Education Dreams a Reality for Teen Parents and Their Children - Imaginable Futures, August 4, 2020
How Colleges Can Better Serve Student Parents - Southern Regional Education Board, June 25, 2020
How you can help:
Make a donation to power Generation Hope’s support of our Scholars and their little ones.
Purchase gift cards from our Amazon wishlist to help Scholars with basic needs.
Mentor as a group (i.e. Resource Family) and build a supportive, lasting relationship with a young parent pursuing their college degree and their pre-k little one. Learn more & apply here, or email our Director of Programming, Caroline (caroline@supportgenerationhope.org) with any questions!
COVID-19 Update July 16, 2020
While these are difficult times there are so many things that give us hope and cause to celebrate, including all of the incredible things our Generation Hope Scholars and their children have accomplished despite the extreme challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the 2019-2020 academic year we celebrated 18 Scholar graduates! Congratulations to Ana Armenta, Eboni Daniels, Delmi Gonzalez, Beatrice Griffin, Princess Kingston, Diamanie Robinson-Gilliard, Jenifer Rodriguez, Ana Vasquez, Ana Villanueva, and Nekaiya Wilson who have earned bachelor’s degrees and are entering the workforce, and congratulations to Emely Delcid, Kathy Sheridan, Barbara Podavin, Araceli Figeroa, Alexis Beuchert, Bryony Hearn, Martha Campos, and Elba Menjivar who all earned their associates degrees and are transferring to four-year colleges! Watch our virtual graduation celebration here.
We also want to celebrate all of our Scholars. Despite the sudden transition to remote classes in March and the challenges associated with COVID-19 93% of our Scholars completed all of their classes this semester and 95% earned a GPA of 2.5 or higher! We are completely blown away by our Scholars’ resilience and tenacity.
Additionally, we accepted a new class of 24 Scholars, and we’re welcoming them to the Generation Hope family with care packages that include school supplies, snacks, games for their kiddos, and more!
A few fun facts about our incoming Scholar class:
Our new Scholars attend 11 different colleges and universities across the DC region, with majors ranging from nursing to biochemistry to communications to criminology and more.
Two of our new Scholars are coming to us after graduating from high school a year early!
We’re immensely grateful for the support from the Generation Hope community. Your help - from individual contributions to large grants, and from gift card donations to virtual volunteer tutor hours - is powering our rapid and robust response to this pandemic and ensuring that our Scholars’ college dreams aren’t derailed during this challenging time.
Looking ahead, we know that this crisis is far from over, and the pandemic will continue to impact our families and our work. Some of the challenges we’re anticipating include potential continued job losses -- more than 25% of our Scholars have lost work already -- and childcare challenges -- over 10% of our Scholars are essential workers who had to report to work despite childcare challenges. Additionally, six of our Scholars were diagnosed with COVID-19, and with the ongoing spread of the virus, we will continue to provide support for the families in our program.
How we’re responding:
Generation Hope continues to provide all of our programming while working remotely! We’ve been doing Next Generation Academy monthly home visits and family dinners over video chat, and our Hope Coaches are assisting Scholars with understanding and applying for government assistance programs; communicating with their colleges about financial aid and class registration, and more; accessing technology needs for remote learning; accessing supports for food insecurity, homelessness, unemployment, and domestic violence; staying on track with coursework; and identifying at-home learning resources for their children.
We recently held a virtual Hope Conference--our annual convening that brings together all of our Scholars for a weekend of learning and community building. And we’re conducting all of our new Mentor and Scholar trainings virtually as well.
In response to this urgent time of racial reckoning, we are also holding virtual conversations with the Generation Hope community, including our staff, Board of Directors, Mentors, Scholars, and funders, to learn about and confront systemic racial oppression and recognize the ways it impacts our relationships and work as a nonprofit.
Our Mental Health Coordinator has provided 95 one-on-one counseling sessions for Scholars and/or their children, and provided eight group sessions about mental health and self care.
Our career readiness team has completed 42 individual coaching sessions as well as two group webinars that focused on success in virtual internship environments.
Generation Hope has distributed more than $24,000 in emergency funding to our Scholars, helping them meet urgent financial needs due to the pandemic.
We have also been raising awareness about the unique needs facing student parents and their children, and the ways that racial inequities impact the families we support on social media, and in media coverage from NBC Think, Washington Business Journal, NBC4 Washington, and Education Leaders of Color.
We’re continuing to keep our Scholar families, and our broader community encouraged and connected through our weekly #GHBedtimeStories virtual storyhours!
How you can help:
Make a donation to power Generation Hope’s support of our Scholars and their little ones.
Purchase gift cards from our Amazon wishlist to help Scholars with basic needs.
Join us as a group mentor (i.e. Resource Family) - and build a supportive, lasting relationship with a young parent pursuing their college degree and their pre-k little one. Learn more & apply here, or email our Director of Programming, Caroline (caroline@supportgenerationhope.org) with any questions!
We are deeply grateful to our funding partners whose rapid support in response to COVID-19 has helped us meet the urgent needs of our Scholars and their children and ensure they stay on the path to long-term success and wellbeing. These supporters include:
Imaginable Futures
ECMC Foundation
Greater Washington Community Foundation
Seldin/Haring-Smith Foundation
Philip L. Graham Fund
Ernest and Rose Samuels Foundation
Wells Fargo
Scheidel Foundation
Truist Foundation
DC Small Business Recovery Microgrants
COVID-19 Update May 28, 2020
It is hard to believe that we have been navigating the impacts of COVID-19 for nearly three months now. While these are incredibly challenging times, we have been so inspired by the resilience of our Scholars and their children and by the support of the community.
We wanted to provide an update on how the outbreak is impacting our families and what we are doing to support them. COVID-19 is continuing to create new challenges and exacerbate existing crises for our Scholars and their children. We anticipate that these difficulties will last well beyond the outbreak as Scholars rebound from lost wages, classroom time, and in-person support.
Here are the main impacts we are seeing:
Health impacts of COVID-19: A number of Generation Hope Scholars and/or their family members have contracted COVID-19. In addition to navigating serious health issues as a result of the virus, Scholars are finding it difficult to quarantine away from their children and family members, especially with limited financial resources.
Lost wages and unemployment: So far, almost a quarter of our Scholars have lost jobs or had hours reduced, causing significant financial hardship. In addition, at least four Scholars have had summer internship offers revoked due to companies freezing costs. This is particularly daunting for Scholars who are not only financially supporting their children but in some cases are also helping with the expenses of their entire household.
Difficulty with remote learning for parent and child: It continues to be difficult for Scholars to participate in remote learning for their college courses while also supporting their children’s online instruction. This challenge is intensified due to limited access to technology as well as juggling the academic needs of multiple children.
Isolation and mental health challenges: Due to the stress of the impacts of COVID-19 and the isolation that comes with social distancing, our Scholars are having to manage their own existing mental health challenges in addition to coping with new stressors for both themselves and their children.
Other challenges are exacerbated by COVID-19: Issues such as domestic violence, food insecurity, and housing instability, which are often already in place for our Scholars or are on the verge of becoming problematic, are now heightened and worsened due to the range of impacts of COVID-19.
Here are key ways we are responding to COVID-19:
Providing all day-to-day supports virtually: Generation Hope continues to provide our personalized case management, home visiting, career readiness, and mental health supports virtually. We are providing both direct support for Scholar families and connections to vital community resources.
Moving program events to virtual delivery: Because of the virus, we had to cancel our Career Clinic, Hope Conference, family dinners, and other trainings, but we are thankful to be able to move much of the content to virtual experiences. Our innovative staff has moved events like our monthly family dinners for families in Next Generation Academy to a virtual format, and they have been especially well-received.
Providing emergency support to our Scholars: Our emergency fund has been in place since our inception to provide direct support to Scholars facing challenges such as illness, homelessness, unemployment, domestic violence, or food insecurity, that could otherwise derail their college dreams. We were able to increase this emergency support in light of COVID-19 and provide additional assistance to every Scholar that requested assistance because of the pandemic.
Building community: We know that physical distancing can take an emotional toll on parents and their children, so we have created opportunities to connect beyond our normal programming. We continue to hold bedtime stories via Facebook Live every week to build community and create lighthearted opportunities for connection. Past readers have included Senator Chris Van Hollen, Broadcast Journalist and Executive Producer Soledad O’Brien, News Anchor Alison Starling, and President and CEO of the United Way of the National Capital Area Rosie Allen-Herring.
Engaging in policy and advocacy: We just released our national report on the experiences of student parents in higher ed. It includes recommendations for how colleges and universities can create environments, policies, and programs that improve outcomes for student parents. This report was underway before COVID-19, but the outbreak has made the findings even more relevant and important, helping institutions consider the needs of parenting students as they strategize for the fall semester. The report serves as an early resource in our new work that focuses on addressing the systemic barriers preventing the socioeconomic mobility of young families. To support our advocacy and national impact work implementation, we are hiring a Director of Learning and Advocacy.
Raising awareness: Generation Hope continues to shine a spotlight on student parents’ challenges in the face of COVID-19. In March, Nicole spoke with The Chronicle of Philanthropy about Generation Hope’s rapid response and shift to working virtually with our Scholars and their families. Inside Higher Ed reported on our Scholar Chelsea’s experience, along with insights from Nicole, in a piece showing how COVID-19 is a “double whammy” for student parents. NBC4 Washington shared how Generation Hope is continuing to support our Scholars during the pandemic.
Being a resource to the broader community: We launched a new emergency support program, Project Persist DMV, to prevent college dropout due to COVID-19 and announced Montgomery College as our first partner. Through this program, Generation Hope is providing colleges with its expert student-support services to ensure traditionally underserved students persist and thrive through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Prioritizing our staff’s wellbeing: This innovative work is being implemented by the phenomenal team we have here at Generation Hope, and we know that they are also feeling the impacts of this virus. To address this, we are sharing weekly resources for mental health and wellness, creating virtual opportunities to connect socially, and offering “self care” hours in addition to normal paid time off. We are also conducting regular surveys to assess how the staff is feeling and what resources they might need for remote work.
How you can help:
Donate to Generation Hope: Your support will help meet the urgent needs of our families and help them stay on track to long-term success and wellbeing.
Become a mentor: The upcoming school year will bring unique challenges for our Scholars, and it will make such a difference to have a supportive mentor in their corner.
Donate to our wish list: You can provide critical tangible items for our Scholars and their children. If you use Amazon, you can donate items via this link.
Spread the word about our student parent survey by sharing our new report.
Please let us know if you have any questions or are aware of any resources that could help our families right now. Similarly, please reach out if there is any way that we can be supportive of you at this time. These past few months have shown that we can and will get through this together.
COVID-19 Update March 30, 2020
We hope you and your loved ones are staying safe and well in the midst of challenging times. I’m checking in with an update about how the COVID-19 outbreak is impacting Generation Hope and our families and what we are doing to help.
We are still at the beginning of what we know will be a long road for our Scholars and their children. Throughout all of this, our goal is to not only meet the current needs of our Scholars and their children but also to continue to provide the robust supports that help them achieve long-term wellbeing and self-sufficiency. Here are some of the impacts our families are already seeing:
College campus closures: Thousands of students across the country have transitioned to online courses with their campuses closing in response to COVID-19, including our Scholars. This transition has revealed inequities in access to technology that can cause real problems for students to complete their coursework. Some students also struggle with online learning, sometimes finding it difficult to connect with professors and the material and causing them to slip academically. Lastly, students who were already dealing with various challenges before COVID-19, are now at greater risk of falling through the cracks in this new online environment.
Unemployment and Financial Crisis: So many hourly workers are losing their jobs as a result of the outbreak. The majority of our Scholars work in the retail and service industries. Nine Generation Hope Scholars have already lost their jobs or had their hours cut due to the outbreak. One employer that had reserved a paid summer internship opportunity for a Generation Hope Scholar has already canceled that internship. For our graduating Scholars, finding employment after graduation will be extremely difficult.
Pre-K through 12 school closures: Local schools have closed in response to the virus, forcing parents to scramble to secure childcare so that they can go to work. Many of our Scholars do not have the option to work from home, and as these closures persist, they are in jeopardy of losing their jobs. Also, as our Scholars try to help their children shift to online instruction, lack of access to technology can hinder their children’s learning at home.
Access to physical and mental healthcare: As health facilities grapple with the virus, uninsured or underinsured individuals will have a hard time accessing healthcare and mental health supports. Some of the health centers that our Scholars would normally access on their campuses have been closed in response to the virus. Also, some of our Scholars do not have access to paid sick leave, which means they have to make the tough decision between going to work sick or staying home and losing wages or perhaps their jobs. While Telebehavioral Health is allowed in some locations, it is not allowed in others, which means Scholars may not be able to receive counseling or prescriptions. We know that this virus is not only taking a physical toll on people but also a mental toll. These challenges are very real.
Now more than ever, your support can make a difference. We are seeing increased need from our Scholars and at the same time, we are looking ahead to a period of economic uncertainty. If you are looking for ways to make a real difference for families in need, you can make a donation to Generation Hope here.
Here is how Generation Hope is responding to these unprecedented times:
We are striving to create as much consistency in our support as possible. All of our case management and most of our small group programming is happening through virtual interaction. This includes our career readiness and mental health support.
We are connecting Scholars to a variety of resources, including providing them with laptops and wifi hotspots to continue learning at home, helping them navigate rapidly-changing government assistance programs, and making referrals to housing, food, and healthcare supports.
We are building a policy agenda that we will execute through communications efforts and partnerships with other organizations to raise awareness on how the outbreak is specifically impacting student parents now and in the long term. Areas of focus will include: increasing Pell Grants and other tuition assistance, improving childcare access and ensuring that parents do not lose vouchers due to employment instability, and replacing lost wages through government assistance. Our Scholars will face a range of systemic challenges in the coming months, and we know that creative policies and programs could have a significant positive impact.
We are working on serving as a resource to colleges and universities by offering our case management to their students to augment their traditional advising, knowing that students who already faced various challenges may not be able to weather this storm without increased support.
We are also thinking creatively about how to keep our families -- and all families -- encouraged through the outbreak. To that end, we have created weekly Bedtime Stories (#GHBedtimeStories) on Facebook Live. I did the first storytime this Tuesday with my children, and it was a lot of fun. We’ll be inviting guest readers to do this as well. Dr. DeRionne Pollard, President of Montgomery College, will be doing our next storytime tomorrow, March 31st at 7:30 pm. Sign up to join and invite others to join here!
Generation Hope’s office will remain closed with all staff working remotely until we hear otherwise from local health officials. We are monitoring the COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak closely, and we will continue to communicate with all of our stakeholders about our status. We want to reiterate that there are no known cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus) that have impacted the Generation Hope community at this time.
We will continue to update our blog with information about how this is impacting our families and what we are doing to help.
Again, please know our thoughts are with you and your families at this time. We will continue to weather this storm together. If you have any additional resources to share, or if we can be helpful in offering any insights or support for anyone in your network, please let us know.
COVID-19 Update March 13, 2020
Every day, the well-being of our Scholars and their children, our staff, volunteers, and the broader community is our top priority. To that end, Generation Hope will close our office beginning today, and all staff will move to working remotely. All in-person group programming scheduled during this time will be suspended or made virtual. We expect the closure to extend through March 27th, but we recognize that this situation is constantly evolving, and we will be in communication with all stakeholders if we have to close the office beyond this date. While this decision was difficult to make, we based it on advice from local and national health officials. Please note that there are no known cases of COVID-19 (coronavirus) that have impacted the Generation Hope community at this time.
We know that situations like the COVID-19 outbreak have the most significant impact on the most vulnerable members of our shared community. Here is how it impacts our Scholars and their children:
College campus closures: Students across the country are being transitioned to online courses as their campuses close in response to COVID-19, including our Scholars. This transition has revealed inequities in access to technology that can cause real problems for students to complete their coursework.
Pre-K through 12 school closures: Several local schools have closed in response to the virus, forcing parents to scramble to secure childcare so that they can go to work. Many of our Scholars do not have the option to work from home, and as these closures persist, they are in jeopardy of losing their jobs. Also, some of our Scholars lack access to technology that will allow their children to continue their learning remotely.
Access to physical and mental healthcare: As health facilities grapple with the virus, uninsured or underinsured individuals could have a hard time accessing healthcare and mental health supports. Some of the health centers that our Scholars would normally access on their campuses have been closed in response to the virus. Also, some of our Scholars do not have access to paid sick leave, which means they have to make the tough decision between going to work sick or staying home and losing wages or perhaps their jobs.
Access to food: Food banks and food supplement programs may close their doors in light of the virus, making it difficult for our Scholars to feed their families.
Even though our offices are closed, our commitment to serving our Scholars and their children remains strong. Here is how we will continue to support them:
Our case managers are already in touch with Scholars and will continue to work with them virtually to provide ongoing case management and to address any needs that arise. We are also encouraging our Scholars and their mentors to still meet virtually.
We are moving as much of our programming as possible to virtual delivery, such as career-readiness support, parenting conversations, home visits, etc.
If Scholars have challenges accessing technology as colleges transition to online classes, such as not having laptops or not having access to wifi, we are loaning laptops and hotspots as we are able and offering a list of other community organizations and libraries that have free or low-cost rental programs.
We are sharing resources to help our Scholars through this difficult time, including:
List of local health centers (including those on their campuses) that accept Medicaid and/or have sliding scale fees in case they get sick.
List of food banks (both local and on campus) and their operating status.
Information about how to apply for SNAP and other benefits if they’re not receiving them.
Reminding them about our Emergency Fund, which allows them to apply for financial assistance in case they lose their job or benefits because of the virus or in case they experience any non-virus related crisis.
Information about emergency aid programs on Scholars’ campuses if they exist.
Information about paid sick leave options and any changing policies in their region.
Some of you have asked how you can help our Scholars and their children during this time. Here are four valuable ways you can help:
Support the Scholar Emergency Fund: Our Emergency Fund provides direct financial support to Scholars during times of crisis, such as illness, food insecurity, domestic violence, unemployment, housing instability, and transportation issues. We anticipate an uptick in requests over the next two months.
Sign up to tutor remotely: We expect that moving to remote classes could make it challenging for our Scholars to get the academic support they need. If you are interested in tutoring, you can note your area of professional and/or academic background and we will match you as needed with a Scholar who needs help in a related class. Thank you to those of you who are already signed up for our ongoing virtual tutoring program!
Make a general donation: We need general operating support to assist with our reserves and/or day-to-day costs in the event that some of our fundraising drops as a result of the virus.
Donate laptops and wifi hotspots: We expect that some of our students will need help accessing online courses, and your donations will help. Please mail the equipment to the office (415 Michigan Ave, NE, Suite 430, Washington, DC 20017).
Thank you for your care and concern for our Scholars and their children throughout the year. We will continue to keep you updated as needed. We also recognize that COVID-19 is having an impact on our supporters so please let us know if we can help in any way as you work through this unprecedented situation. Of course, please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions, concerns, or community resources to share.
