Take Stock Innovation Collection (1)

For many youth-serving mentoring and college readiness organizations, increasing service levels without comprising quality or "breaking the bank" is a major priority. The Take Stock Innovation Collection offers six field-tested, research-based approaches to help organizations achieve this goal. The innovative elements included in this edition are: collective impact, alternative financial aid and scholarship models, a school-based approach, a post-secondary partnership approach, group mentoring, and virtual mentoring. The intention of the Take Stock Innovation Collection is to offer step-by-step guidance for organizations to follow as they work to implement these innovations and increase their impact.

Take Stock in Children (www.takestockinchildren.org) is a non-profit organization serving the state of Florida that offers students a way out of poverty and into higher education through scholarships, mentors, and hope. The organization was founded in 1995 by a group of education, community, and business leaders frustrated by the large number of at-risk children in Florida not accessing higher education and being shut out of life-changing jobs and opportunities. Together, they created a simple, yet transformative solution. Students are recruited in middle and high school and receive comprehensive support through post-secondary graduation. Each student benefits from regular meetings with a volunteer adult mentor, professional post-secondary success and career coaching, and sign a contract agreeing to remain drug and crime free and maintain high attendance and grades. In exchange for this commitment students receive a post-secondary scholarship to mitigate the financial barrier to higher education. Take Stock in Children has served over 32,000 students during its history and has produced remarkable results. The organization has a statewide reach that is currently unmatched by any other mentoring and college readiness organization in the United States, with affiliates that have the capacity to serve all 67 Florida counties. The organization is also one of the nation's most well-established public-private ventures. Since 1995, Take Stock in Children has given out over $225 million in scholarships to deserving students.