Faculty members and students have been working since last fall to create a program to help students who have been involved in foster care, are emancipated or are wards of the state. The program, Alabama Reach, has a goal to provide support for these students while they are at the University.

Lowell Davis, assistant dean of students and assistant to the vice provost, created the program. Davis, along with Karen Baynes-Dunning, a professor in the College of Human Environmental Sciences, has worked to find funding and support for the growing program.

So far, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, created by Jim Casey, the founder of UPS, has awarded Alabama Reach with a grant to create a new initiative to find host families for the program’s students to connect with.

All over the country, universities have introduced programs to connect these students with campus and community mentors, but according to Baynes-Dunning, the University of Alabama is the only known university to work toward a host family program.

The host families will be available to their student for many “normal” family roles the student may not be privy to. The student may want to visit the host family to do laundry, have dinner or find comfort. There may also be cases where the student will join the family for holidays in the event that they have no one to go home to.

In addition to the host family, students can be introduced to a community or faculty member to serve as a mentor and students can be matched with mentors who are leaders in the student’s field of interest.

Lauren Bingham, a third year law student, has helped with background research, event planning, outreach and literature for the program.

“Every student in Alabama Reach will have a mentor to provide support to the student in various areas of difficulty that accompany being a college student lacking a family support network,” Bingham said. “Professors and other professionals in the area are volunteering to be the mentors to the students involved with Alabama Reach.”

With the help of the Advancement Office, Alabama Reach has been able to provide the students involved with the program with emergency funding for those times when there simply is no way for the students to provide certain needs for themselves.

Thus far, those needs have been anything from buying a pair of eyeglasses to fixing a computer to assisting with closing the gap on their bills during financial hardship. Along with the Student Alumni Association, the program has also provided students with care packages for back-to-school and exam packages at the end of the semester.

Involvement in the Alabama Reach program is completely voluntary, and confidentiality requirements have created barriers. Students involved with the program have sought Davis for information, but with the Casey Foundation’s grant, student positions have been created to enhance the program and reach out to students who may benefit.

Maurice Foster, a junior majoring in psychology and philosophy, was one of the students placed in these positions. Foster said they are excited for what will happen through the program, and he hopes at least 75 percent of students who fall into these categories will be involved and that the program will help the students remain in school and graduate.

“This student population has overcome enormous obstacles in their personal and academic lives to attend The University of Alabama,” Bingham said. “As an organization, we want to recognize the strength of character it takes to pursue their educational goals. Alabama Reach is designed to alleviate the pressures that students coming from foster care experience. Alabama Reach hopes to provide an avenue for the necessary support to aide in each student’s success at the University and beyond.”

Monthly meetings take place for the students to learn about areas of assistance that may apply to them and to socialize with other students in the same situations. For more information on getting assistance from or information about Alabama Reach, please contact Lowell Davis at [email protected] or Maurice Foster at [email protected].