LEARN AND EARN
Learn & Earn is an intensive 12-week life skills training curriculum, during which youth, their mentors, and SLM staff meet weekly for two hours to work on skills such as budgeting, resume-writing, banking, financial literacy, interview skills and more. Youth earn a stipend for each curriculum component they successfully complete allowing youth to build assets to support their transition to adulthood. With this earned money youth have paid rent, college tuition, and purchased laptops for schoolwork and professional clothing, meeting critical needs for adulthood. Learn how to become a Learn & Earn Partner Program here!
Learn & Earn serves teens and young adults impacted by foster care ages 16 and older. These young people are at a critical juncture in their journey toward independent adulthood and preparing to age out of foster care, losing all services and financial support provided by the Department of Children & Families at age 18. A report from The Boston Foundation found that of young adults who age out of foster care, 37% experienced homelessness and 54% were unemployed. Learn & Earn addresses these chronic challenges.
Learn & Earn is an intensive 12-week life skills curriculum, during which youth, their mentors, and SLM social workers meet weekly for two hours to work on skills such as budgeting, resume-writing, banking, financial literacy, interview skills and more. The program also has a matched-savings component: youth earn a stipend for each curriculum component they successfully complete. SLM matches these savings, allowing youth to build assets to support their transition to adulthood. With this earned money youth have paid rent, college tuition, and purchased laptops for schoolwork and professional clothing, meeting critical needs for adulthood. Learn how to become a Learn & Earn Partner Program here!
Learn & Earn serves teens and young adults impacted by foster care ages 16 and older. These young people are at a critical juncture in their journey toward independent adulthood and preparing to age out of foster care, losing all services and financial support provided by the Department of Children & Families at age 18. A report from The Boston Foundation found that of young adults who age out of foster care, 37% experienced homelessness and 54% were unemployed. Learn & Earn addresses these chronic challenges.
SLM uses a site-based model for Learn & Earn, partnering with other local organizations serving youth in foster care to bring the program to the residential facilities where youth live. Partner agencies recruit youth to participate and provide space for weekly meetings. SLM brings in the Learn & Earn life skills training curriculum, volunteer mentors, and its social workers to facilitate the program.
All youth are paired with a volunteer mentor who helps them with the Learn & Earn curriculum and provides ongoing support. All youth and mentors receive individualized, intensive support from SLM’s clinical social workers throughout the program.
After the 12-week curriculum, over 65% of Learn & Earn graduates choose to remain involved with SLM to continue working toward their individual educational and independent living goals as part of the Community Based Mentoring program.
Outcomes Among Learn & Earn Graduates Include:
SUCCESS STORY
Jesse B. and Melissa
My mentor Melissa and I met through a program that Silver Lining Mentoring offers called the Learn and Earn program in 2017. It was my first time ever getting involved with Silver Lining. Since then, Melissa has helped me achieve many milestones and goals I had set. She helped me open a bank account, get a permit, get my Massachusetts ID, and she even supported me through high school to my graduation.
My relationship with Melissa is very unique – we have formed a special bond over the years and have gotten to know each other really well. Our personalities match very well together and we have many things in common. We are both animals lovers, we are both part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and we both have similar interests. We go out and do many different things depending on the day, and depending how we are feeling it can range from going out to eat, watching movies, playing board and card games, or going to animal shelters to see all the cute animals.
Success can look different to different people. For me it is something that you have accomplished or overcome and have learned and grown from. That is exactly what Melissa has helped me do, and she is always there for me no matter what.
SUCCESS STORY
Jesse B. and Melissa
My mentor Melissa and I met through a program that Silver Lining Mentoring offers called the Learn and Earn program in 2017. It was my first time ever getting involved with Silver Lining. Since then, Melissa has helped me achieve many milestones and goals I had set. She helped me open a bank account, get a permit, get my Massachusetts ID, and she even supported me through high school to my graduation.
My relationship with Melissa is very unique – we have formed a special bond over the years and have gotten to know each other really well. Our personalities match very well together and we have many things in common. We are both animals lovers, we are both part of the LGBTQIA+ community, and we both have similar interests. We go out and do many different things depending on the day, and depending how we are feeling it can range from going out to eat, watching movies, playing board and card games, or going to animal shelters to see all the cute animals.
Success can look different to different people. For me it is something that you have accomplished or overcome and have learned and grown from. That is exactly what Melissa has helped me do, and she is always there for me no matter what.
Become a Learn & Earn Partner Program
Does your program serve teens or young adult ages 16+ impacted by foster care? Would they benefit from long-term, one-on-one mentoring as well as access to life skills training? If so, we would love to partner with you! Learn & Earn provides life skills training and mentoring to teens and young adults impacted by foster care, and does so in the homes and communities where your program participants live. For more information on how to provide these services to your youth, please use the button below to send us an email or contact Rachel Kossar, Program Manager, at rkossar@silverliningmentoring.org.