NextUp is a program that provides current and former foster youth students with the support they need. It has given LMC students a place to belong, thrive and succeed since it launched last fall.

The program is accessed under EOPS so that students enrolled in both can receive the services both programs offer. In addition to the EOPS benefits, NextUp provides each student with a laptop and hotspot upon their enrollment, free of charge.

Every month, students are assisted with food, transportation and housing. They receive grocery vouchers and meal tickets for the cafeteria, gas vouchers or clipper cards, housing grants, and more depending on their personal needs. These resources are given to help them succeed in their educational journey.

“The goal of the NextUp program is to walk with students throughout their journey at LMC, from the moment they first step foot on campus until they walk across the graduation stage,” said NextUp Counselor Phoebe Keesey. “A big part of that is about helping students maximize their access to critical services and building a community of support.”

To strengthen that community, students get together every month to check in and have dinner.

“These meetings are a time for them to feel a sense of belonging and build a community with each other,” said Carissa Craig-Huddleston, director of NextUp.

“It’s really important that we have a program to create a community and know that you’re not alone,” she said. “You don’t have to feel like you stick out, you know, you belong here.”

 She added that holidays and students’ birthdays are also celebrated during the monthly meetings.

“Many foster students miss out on getting to celebrate these events while they are in foster care, so the monthly meetings give them an opportunity to do that,”  said Seth Hendricks, a NextUp peer mentor.

Hendricks is also a student in the program, and he believes it is helpful to check in with individual members as their peer mentor.

“If you can talk to someone who’s got similar experiences and also is a college student going through the same stuff that you probably are,” Hendricks said, “it makes it easier to talk to them.”

NextUp Program Coordinator T’Sendenia Gage said it is important for foster students to have a program that caters to them.

“Foster youth experience additional hurdles and traumas,” Gage said. “They need a little more motivation, a little more support, a little more guidance to help them get where they need to be, and oftentimes they are told that they can’t do something, or that they won’t be somebody when that is in no way factual.”

Gage explained that foster youth are underrepresented, “They’re definitely not talked about enough,” she said, “but there are enough of them here to be of value, to be recognized and acknowledged, and I think NextUp is one step closer to making that happen at LMC.”

Students can enroll in NextUp at any time during the semester and there is no unit requirement. To be eligible, students must have been in out-of-home placement on or after their 13th birthday, and they must be under 26 years old when applying.

If you are interested in learning more about the program, you can visit the LMC website under NextUp/Foster Youth.