Deadline: August 4, 2003

The ECMC Foundation, a nonprofit member of ECMC Group, works to help ensure equal access to educational opportunities. To this end, the foundation funds scholarship programs, a college resource center, and research designed to support its mission.

The foundation is seeking proposals for the development of a pilot outreach program to educate disadvantaged high school students about the economic and social benefits of achieving education beyond high school as well as financial aid options available to help pay for higher education.

Proposals are invited to create a pilot program, focusing on targeted/disadvantaged students, that conveys the social and economic advantages of attaining higher education, expands options to include the full range of higher education choices, and presents the tools to negotiate the maze of financial aid opportunities to attain education beyond high school. Projects should last around twenty hours; the sessions should be able to be spread out over the school year or compressed into a shorter time period. Projects should be able to be used in a variety of ways and settings (i.e., during the school day, as an after school program, as a summer school program) and be able to be presented by secondary school teachers and counselors. Projects should focus on two main components: the lifelong social and economic benefits of higher education, and the financial aid aspect.

The foundation requests proposals from public and private organizations, researchers at institutions of higher education, and agencies experienced in educational research. The foundation expects to make a grant in the $50,000-$100,000 range.

See the ECMC Foundation Web site to download the full RFP and the research report "Cultural Barriers to Incurring

Debt: An Exploration of Borrowing and Impact on Access to Postsecondary Education."

RFP Link: http://www.ecmcfoundation.org/communications.html