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California Cash for College Line-by-line, step-by-step, a brighter future for all students…

2005 FAFSA Community Workshop Series

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What is California Cash for College (CCFC)? A project of the California Student Aid

Commission/EDFUND and The James Irvine Foundation.

The workshop series aims to help low income and first generation college-going students and their families complete the FAFSA and other financial aid forms.

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What is CA Cash for College? Now entering 4th Year

136 workshops statewide in 2004

Since 2002, more than 18,000 students statewide have attended workshops

Community coalitions work directly with high schools, higher education financial aid offices and outreach programs to conduct workshops

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Top 5 Reasons to Send Students to a Cash for College Workshop…

1. Friendly, helpful people like yourselves will say, “You CAN Afford College, and here’s how!”

2. Having students draw parents to a workshop offers them needed “quality time”

3. January & February are “Focus on the FAFSA” months!

4. Can get help with tax preparation5. Can win 1 of 10 $1,000 Scholarships in a statewide

drawing – just for attending and filling out a survey!

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More Reasons to Send Students to Cash for College Workshop… Another opportunity to get free professional

and knowledgeable help on the FAFSA Multilingual materials and assistance for

parents Will leave armed with road map to finish

FAFSA, to navigate award letter process, and with financial literacy materials

Did we mention the $1,000 Scholarship drawing? 10+ scholarships offered to students statewide

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Who Attends Workshops? High school seniors and those

students who would qualify for the Cal Grant Entitlement program

Parents and Guardians Low income and first generation

college-goers All students who want help in

completing the FAFSA and other forms are served

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Workshops in January and February? Scheduled evenings and weekends in

January and February to give students and families a second or third pass at the FAFSA

To make sure we help all students who need to fill out the FAFSA

In January and February, the FAFSA can be filed and W-2 information is more likely to be available to students and their families.

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How can Students Find out about Workshops ?Visit www.californiacashforcollege.org

Click on “Workshops,” enter your zip code for a list of workshops within an 80 mile radius.

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Cash for College Partners who “Speak FAFSA” at Workshops

High School Counselors and their member organization

Financial Aid Administrators of all segments and their associations

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Cash for College Partners who “ the FAFSA”

All higher education segments Student Outreach Programs Community organizations IRS – Volunteer Income Tax Assistance

(VITA) Regional Coalitions Statewide labor groups Statewide coalition of faith-based groups Elected officials Foster care program representatives Workforce Investment Board/Youth

Councils

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95% of students told us the workshop was excellent or good

93% of students told us it was worth the effort of coming to the workshop

52% of student respondents who participated in California Cash for College workshops will be the first in their family to attend college.

What Students Told Us In 2004:It’s All Good…

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What They Told Us In 2004: Parents Matter! 51% of students whose parent/guardian attended

completed FAFSA at the workshop Only 34% of students attending alone completed

FAFSA at the workshop

51%

34%

Parent DidNOT Attend 34%

ParentAttended 51%

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What They Told Us In 2004: School is where it’s AT….

50% of students told us they heard about workshops at school

21% of students told us they heard through a workshop organizer

Only 14% said they heard about workshops through newspaper, radio or TV

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What They Told Us In 2004:

FA Office 5%

Other Individual

3%

Teacher 9%

CounselorAdvisor

16%

General Campus

Info 67%

Among “at school” responses, who or where they heard about workshops

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What They Told Us In 2004: Workshop Organizers made an Impact

Phone Call, Visit from Rep

4%

Flyer, Poster

27%Letter, Mail,

Postcard, Email 69%

How students said they heard from Workshop Organizers

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What They Told Us In 2004: Did Students Meet March 2nd Cal Grant Deadline?

76.1% Met Deadline

13.1%Didn’t Want to Say

10.7%, Did NOT Meet Deadline

First-time calling project reached 2,851 students who attended workshops

Results include complete contacts and refusals, “no answers” not included

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Ways to Link School and CCFC Efforts

Send students and their parents to a California Cash for College workshop

Work with regional and local organizers to hold workshop at high school site

Post California Cash for College workshop locater link to your school website

More options are welcome, we want to hear from you!

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Ways to Link School and CCFC Efforts The statewide CCFC office coordinates individual

efforts. For more information, email Despina Costopoulos: cashforcollege@csac.ca.gov

Regional offices: In Metro and Greater LA, email Alma Salazar:

asalazar@unitela.com In San Diego and Imperial counties, email Linda

Doughty: ldoughty@ucsd.edu In the Central Valley, email Cheri Cruz:

ccruz@csufresno.edu In the Bay Area, email Ellen Cunningham:

ecunningham@chelafin.org Capitol Region - TBA