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December 6, 2004; McLEAN, VA - Capital One is partnering with Bruce Willis' National Foster Care Fund (NFCF) to create a national scholarship program, Fostering a Future, to benefit youth and children in foster care. Capital One will launch the scholarship program and award its first recipient during the taping of CBS' special holiday program "A Home for the Holidays," which will air on December 22 and is produced in association with the Children's Action Network...
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The importance of early childhood education for all children has been documented over and over. Approximately 80% of a child's intellectual development takes place between birth and age 8. Therefore, these are key years. This is especially true for a foster child.
Typically, foster children that enter the "system" during their early childhood years, suffer from a variety of challenges. Many foster children are learning disabled, and often their disabilities go undetected during the most significant years of their lives. As a result, many suffer from feeling of inferiority, low self-esteem and unfortunately, despair.
Psychologically, many foster children suffer from attachment disorders, which prevent them from forming significant connections with adults. Through no fault of their own, the foster child, often bounced from one home to the next, keeps a safe distance from those involved in their lives as a way of protecting themselves from the hurt of being uprooted.
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By providing a stable, loving, nurturing, independent school environment for foster children, several important things take place: They are cognitively challenged and provided the opportunity to explore their natural curosity during the most significant years of their lives. They would be in environments, during their most formative years, where the values and attitudes most conducive to educational success are forming and being assimilated. Finally, the school would represent stability and family. Although foster homes may change from time to time, the school can be the one constant in the impressionable child's life.
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Capital One's Fostering a Future
Scholarship Fund
Historically, Capital One has supported a range of issues serving youth such as literacy initiatives, local food banks serving youth, mentoring and leadership development efforts for children. Children and youth in foster care are a critical population of youth representing approximately 540,000 children. This is about giving back and making an impact in the lives of these youth. Our goal is to provide the funding needed for these children and youth to be able to live their dreams.
Starting in 2004 and lasting through 2005, the scholarships will be given to children currently and formerly in foster care to help them not only get into colleges, universities and trade schools, but also to help them remain in school through graduation.
Scholarships are designed to encourage all current and former foster care children to apply and go to the school or training course of their choice.
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