While tremendous efforts are made to recruit an adoptive family for each child in foster care in the region, children age-out of the system each year at the age of 21. And young people, 10- to 20-year-olds, are on the trajectory to age-out of foster care without a family to support them. Students who age-out of foster care are at risk of struggling financially throughout their lives.
The Trailblazer Project is a program of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments that aims to support youth who are striving to beat these odds by providing scholarship funding to students, who are in foster care or who will be exiting the system before they complete their education. The maximum amount of scholarship funding available to students is $1,000 per student per academic year. Eligible students must be enrolled in or accepted in college or a vocational training program, and they must sufficiently document their need for financial support.