ARKANSAS SINGLE PARENT SCHOLARSHIP FUND PROGRAM

Our ultimate goal is for the single-parents we serve to
* Graduate into sustainable employment with a family-supporting wage,
* With little to no educational debt,
* Move their family out of poverty, and
* Know how to successfully manage their new higher income.

To achieve this goal, we provide financial support and professional and personal development opportunities to single parents pursuing career-focused post-secondary degrees or professional certificates.

Strategy 1: Provide financial assistance to single parents enrolled in career-focused college degrees or skilled trade programs. The parent may use these funds in whatever way they need to help them stay in school, making progress toward completion of their program. This might be textbooks, fees, or school supplies, but it could just as easily be rent, utilities, or groceries.

Strategy 2: Provide personal and professional development opportunities throughout the year. While the student is in our program, s/he may avail themselves of various workshops from 1 - 2 hours long to full-day classes. Topics include work-related skills in the areas of job acquisition (resume writing, interview skills, dress for success, etc.) and soft skills (communication, problem solving, teamwork, leadership, etc.), and personal growth related skills like eating healthy on a budget, homebuying 101, stress management, etc. All of these activities are free for the parents to attend, most include a meal or snacks, and many include a gift card awarded at the end to offset the cost of gas or a babysitter.

Strategy 3: Create strong relationships through mentoring, coaching, and celebrating success. ASPSF is not one of those scholarship organizations that review an application and mail a check. We know each of our students. We meet them in scholarship interviews, we call and email, we celebrate each student and scholarship at an Awards Ceremony in front of the student's children and guests, we celebrate each graduation/

ASPSF has been doing this successfully for the past 31 years.
We have committed partners and funders and an excellent reputation across the state.
We have a staff of 19, all of whom directly support our students and the success of our program.
The five members of our Senior Staff have over 70 years of experience in non-profit human services.
We have a committed Board of Directors with Board attendance near 100% and active Board committees.

From 2017 - 2019, we transitioned into a new organizational structure to allow us to serve more single parents better. Moving from an organization of 62 loosely connected affiliates, we now operate in 10 regions with program staff living and working in each region and a central state staff supporting everyone in the areas of finance, communications, IT, and fund development. Since this transition, scholarships have increased each year and we've been able to raise the amount of our scholarship awards three times.