LOS ANGELES COMMUNITY COLLEGES AND RAISE THE BARR PARTNER TO SUPPORT SINGLE-PARENT STUDENTS

LOS ANGELES - Raise The Barr (RTB), in collaboration with Los Angeles Mission College (LAMC), Los Angeles Pierce College (LAPC), and Los Angeles Valley College (LAVC), is proud to announce an initiative designed to support single-parent students in the San Fernando Valley. The coordinated care initiative, known as the 'Angels Cohort,' will support up to 20 families by providing $1,000 in monthly rental assistance for two years, stabilizing housing for parents as they pursue higher education.  

Half of the cohort members are young parents (18-24 years old) with young children (0-5), a special focus for this cohort, and all are single-parent students. In addition to financial and other Raise The Barr supports, CARE, CalWORKs, and basic needs staff from the three colleges will work closely with RTB’s Whole Family Program Coordinators to enhance and expand other campus and community-based resources for families. 

Angels Cohort families and other single-parent students will also have access to Raise The Barr’s whole-family model, which increases persistence by intentionally, simultaneously strengthening relationships with both generations. Raise The Barr’s support includes activities focused on peer-to-peer support, mental health and wellness, healthy relationships, job training and career development, and financial empowerment – emphasizing tactics for reducing financial burden, stabilizing expenses, and building wealth.  

Lead project funding is provided by a $500,000 grant from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and $100,000 from the Foundation for the Los Angeles Community Colleges. 

Lori Barr, co-founder of Raise The Barr and Southern California native said, “we are very excited to launch this new program. We hope it will serve as a scalable, cost-effective model program for community colleges across the state, pairing wrap-around services with housing subsidies to increase the 6-year attainment rate for single-parent students. We are profoundly grateful to the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Foundation for the Los Angeles Community Colleges for their support, which enables us to dedicate efforts toward increasing college access for students who are young single parents.”

“As a single parent myself, who navigated college while raising young children, I support the critical resources that Raise the Barr will provide to our students,” said Andra Hoffman, Los Angeles Community College District Trustee. “Aligning our colleges with the needs and opportunities of student parents has been a top priority of mine since I was elected to serve LACCD nearly 10 years ago. Raise the Barr’s model is among the most comprehensive I have seen and I’m grateful and thrilled that we can support students in this way. I know this type of support can be life changing for our students and their families.”

Nationally, estimates suggest one out of five undergraduate students is a parent, with about half of them single parents. Locally, the Los Angeles Community College District serves an even higher share of student parents, a population representing a third of the District’s student body. Student parents are more likely to identify with one or more marginalized communities; students are more likely to be first-generation students, identify as women and BIPOC, and live at or below the poverty line. What’s more, single-parent students are much less likely to graduate compared to other undergraduate students, and those who are successful in degree completion frequently carry more student debt. Promoting college success among single-parent students is critical to improving racial, ethnic, and gender equity in higher education.

About Raise The Barr

Co-founded by 4xPro-Bowl NFL linebacker and UCLA All-American Anthony Barr, and his mother Lori Barr, in 2016, Raise The Barr was inspired by their lived experience as a single-parent family. Raise The Barr partners with single-parent students and their children to increase their opportunities and economic mobility through education. Together, single-parent students and Raise The Barr plan and implement comprehensive programming that leads to health and well-being for the entire family. RTB invests in targeted supportive services and systems change initiatives that help single-parent students and their children meet their financial, academic, and health, and well-being goals. Collectively, RTB’s work improves a single-parent student’s chance of persisting and degree completion resulting in a range of benefits to families and society. More information on Raise the Barr can be found at www.raisethebarr.org or by following Raise The Barr on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.