An Implementation Study of a Two-Generation College Scholarship Program

Two-generation initiatives link intensive, high-quality education services for children/youth and parents within the same low-income family. Such approaches that target children/youth and parents together represent a promising and innovative antipoverty strategy that can promote intergenerational economic opportunity in families. HOPE (Helping Our Population Educate) Toledo Promise, which began in 2020, is one of the only known model two-generation college scholarship programs in the United States. Initial funding for HOPE Toledo comes from the Kadens Family Foundation, and the program is directed by Reverend John Jones. HOPE Toledo Promise is a two-generation program that provides cost-free postsecondary education (including tuition, room, board, books, and fees) to high school graduates and one of their parents/legal guardians. Research on the implementation of the HOPE Toledo Promise will generate data and the perspectives of youth, parents, and leadership and program staff that will help improve the program model as it stands and will ideally lead to full evaluation of its effectiveness in promoting the education and career success of youth and their parents from some of the most disadvantaged schools in the country. The study will also inform the field of two-generation college scholarship program and how they can better support low-income families in achieving postsecondary education. HOPE Toledo Promise was recently offered to its first cohort of students: the 2020 graduating class of Scott High School in Toledo, Ohio and one of their parents/guardians. At this time, parents/guardians may only participate in the program if their child participates. Young adults (“Young Scholars”) and parents/guardians (“Parent Scholars”) in this cohort had the opportunity to enroll in a college, university, or technical school in the summer or fall of 2020. HOPE Toledo’s innovative program has the potential to reframe how program and policy makers view colle