CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Some child advocates say a plan by a nonprofit group to convert a southern West Virginia campus into a college specifically for children transitioning out of the foster care system is not a good idea.
Tina Faber is based at West Virginia University in Morgantown and runs a state program called Mentoring with Oversight for Developing Independence with Foster Youth, or MODIFY. She told the Charleston Gazette-Mail that it’s very important for children in foster care to live a normal life and to be with peers who aren’t foster children.
Faber said many of the children she’s worked with likely wouldn’t choose to attend this type of college.
“They do not want to be known as foster kids,” Faber said. “They really shy away from that identity, and I think it goes back to they just want to be normal. They want to be seen as any other kid, any other young adult, and they want to experience going to college and all of those other things you get to experience. They crave that normalcy.”
Earlier this month, Olathe, Kansas-based KVC Health Systems announced a plan to give foster children a chance to earn two-year degrees at no cost to them.
KVC, which specializes in behavioral health care and child welfare, will take over several buildings at the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Montgomery. West Virginia University is moving WVU Tech’s operations about 40 miles south to Beckley by this fall.
KVC initially wants to target children from West Virginia and have 200 students while eventually opening up the college to out-of-state students. The students would have access to behavioral specialists and mentoring programs.
