Our Programs

SUN Scholars supports youth who experienced foster care, adoption, and transfers of guardianship (Kinship Care) in the state of Connecticut through academic coaching, peer mentoring, and resource coordination.

Success: SUN aims to build social capital and improve academic performance of youth in our community.

Former foster youth have considerably disparaging educational outcomes– we aim to challenge this social construct through personal and communal interactions designed to increase participant's overall success. We believe in achieving, youth must develop and acquire social, cultural, and symbolic capital to attain overall social equity. This process of gaining equity is intertwined with the youth's ability to acquire additional social capital and support via mentors and allies. To cultivate success, we expound to the idea that we must first instill an ideology of success that focuses on one decision at a time, and one student at a time, in a systemic production; this will improve their overall academic performance.

Nurture: SUN aims to develop each youth's advocacy of self, as well as tackling foundational needs such as food insecurity, homelessness, and mental health through resource coordination.

SUN Scholars puts a unique emphasis on resource coordination while collaborating with colleges and universities to ensure students have a navigational path and skillsets to find and acquire multi-lateral supports, with a focus on tackling the basic needs such as food and housing insecurities. SUN will guide students to find resources including, but not limited to, mental health, career counseling, available health care resources, and community partners that can enhance overall student development. Students will both learn self-advocacy, feeling confident that they have a support system to walk them through the labyrinth/esoteric nature of a post-secondary ecosystem. The organization understands that when students stay engaged with support systems and are actively participating with their future self, the likelihood in academic, social, emotional and professional success will increase.

Uplift: SUN seeks to create a community of support through uplifting their shared lived experiences while celebrating all forms of identity.

The organization will instill the belief that affirmations and constructive discussions are foundational to the development of our community, as well as fostering and encouraging youth to transmute not only individual but also collective self-worth. SUN Scholars will help youth acquire social-emotional competencies in a transformative environment, with an emphasis on cultivating the youth's ability to come to their own best. There is a strong commitment to establish a culture where growth is inevitable, and challenges are always met with strength-based and evidence-based best practices.