Carolina Youth Development Center (CYDC), in partnership with One Economy Corporation (OE), has received an $82,000 planning grant from the Andrus Family Fund (AFF) for an innovative pilot to bring technology access, training and resources to foster youth as they exit foster care into independence. This grant is the third in four years that CYDC has received from the Andrus Family Fund of New York, NY.

Carolina Youth Development Center and One Economy Corporation will design and create “Life Transitions through Technology,” an innovative pilot to bring technology access, training and resources to foster youth as they exit foster care into independence. Modeled on the Andrus Family Fund’s “Transitions Framework,” which is based on the philosophy of author William Bridges, the program targets youth 17-21 in foster care and follows them into independence as they build new lives beyond the child welfare system. 

CYDC and OE will recruit foster youth, paid consultants/participants, from South Carolina’s tri-county area (Berkeley, Charleston and Dorchester). The consultants/participants represent youth transitioning from foster care, who will help plan the new program. CYDC will provide leadership and life-skills services, through its existing “Leadership for Life” program, and OE will provide the technology access, training and content. The Transitions Framework will be the primary tool in the development, management, content and delivery of this pilot initiative.

CYDC’s Leadership for Life program specifically focuses on preparing students for life after group home care. These areas include developing coping skills, becoming financially literate, practicing self-care and maintaining healthy relationships, using public transportation and finding and maintaining adequate housing. The Bakker Center’s readiness curriculum also includes money management, budgeting, consumer education, use of credit, interpersonal skill building, educational advancement and job attainment skills.

About Carolina Youth Development Center
Founded in 1790 as the Charleston Orphan House, the Carolina Youth Development Center has served the Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties of South Carolina for 221 years by providing shelter, safety and treatment services to abused, neglected and abandoned children. Today CYDC’s programs are primarily dedicated to housing and supporting victims of child abuse or neglect, and to helping these and other at-risk youth in the community, including foster youth, become successful adults. The CYDC Bakker Career Center, located on the CYDC campus, provides leadership training, career development, and academic programs to help children prepare for life after foster care.

About the Andrus Family Fund
Based in New York City, the Andrus Family's most prominent endeavor is the Surdna Foundation, established by family patriarch, John Emory Andrus, in 1917. Currently, the foundation has assets of more than $800 million and is among the dozen largest family foundations in the country.

In January 2000, the Board of Directors of the Surdna Foundation launched the Andrus Family Philanthropy Program (AFPP) to engage the more than 400 extended family members in philanthropy and public service. AFPP is an emerging alliance of programs that promote and develop meaningful opportunities for the entire Andrus family for public service, voluntarism, education, and training in philanthropy and non-profit work.

As part of AFPP, the Andrus Family Fund (AFF) was established to give fifth-generation family members between the ages of 25 and 45 an opportunity to learn about and participate in organized philanthropy. While AFF is legally a fund of the Surdna Foundation, AFF defines and manages its own grant making program and process. Through AFF, a new generation of Andrus family philanthropists is identifying and implementing its own philanthropic vision.