Redding Rotary will work together with Rotary East in Redding to purchase and distribute to each student in the Step-Up Program at Shasta College a personal laptop computer to increase his or her likelihood of completing college assignments and ultimately graduating from their two-year program. STEP-UP stands for the Shasta Education Program-Unified Partnership and is a partnership between the Shasta County Sheriff and Probation Departments, California Division of Parole Operations, Good News Rescue Mission, California Heritage YouthBuild Academy, and Butte County Office of Education. Sheriff Tom Bosenko and Eva Jimenez, associate vice president of the Economic Workforce Development Department at Shasta College, laid out the foundation for the program in 2013. Jimenez applied for a grant offered by the Berkeley-based Opportunity Institute. The “Renewing Communities†grant and local investments from the school and a patchwork of funding sources from local agencies has allowed the program to grow from the 20 initial students in 2013 to 100 students in 2017. STEP-UP’s mission is to provide academic, logistical and limited financial support for students who have been formerly incarcerated and/or have suffered from alcohol or drug addiction. Their purpose is to give these students a chance to gain skills, make better life decisions and become contributing members of society. The program will grow to 125 students next Fall. Ready access to a computer was identified by the current Step-Up students as their number one unmet needs to increase their success in the program. They have access to the schools’ computer lab, but only during regular school days hours. Without a personal computer in their home, they are prohibited from using evenings and weekends to complete their college assignments.
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