Members of the East Valley Institute of Technology were joined by Mesa Mayor John Giles and Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs on Friday in a ceremony commemorating a $10 million, 24,050-square-foot residential center on campus for foster teens set to open in July.
The residential center known as HopeTech is to the east side of the EVIT campus near 1353 W. Main St. in Mesa. It will provide foster teens between 18-21 — the age where teens typically transition out of foster care — a stable place to live at a low cost while also taking advantage of EVIT resources to further academic and career development, according to a press release.
Students staying at HopeTech will be able to have stable housing, which is something many foster youth do not get to experience. At an age where they are transferring out of foster care, having stable housing at that point in your life is extremely important, said EVIT Superintendent Dr. Chad Wilson.
“I have two kids that have never had to stress or wrestle with having a safe place to live after they left high school. They could stay at home with us, or go to college or live in an apartment. They had the opportunity to focus on continuing their education or career development,” Wilson said. “Many youth that are transitioning out of the foster care system who haven’t completed high school don’t have a safe place to live. Most of them don’t know where they are going to live. So their energy and focus isn’t on studying or earning an industry certification or advancing their career, but on where they are going to sleep at night. If they have a safe place to live, they can spend that energy on their studies to complete high school or their studies to earn an industry certification.”
Wilson said it’s especially difficult for foster teens who move between homes constantly. The frequent changes in school and environment may lead to them becoming credit deficient, something Wilson said that HopeTech aims to remedy.
According to the press release and EVIT sources, HopeTech students will have opportunities to learn a trade via 50 EVIT programs or to complete their high school education at Paul Revere Academy across the street via a GED or diploma. Rent at HopeTech is $500 a month. However, residents are required to put time in for their academic and career pursuits in order to stay.
In a handout listing eligibility requirements provided by EVIT, HopeTech residents must be employed in a part-time job. They must also spend 35 hours a week fulfilling academic requirements and taking in part in activities such as internships, volunteer work, job/life skills training and meetings.
“Thirty-five hours a week will be spent on what we’re calling meaningful activities. And that could be academics, a part-time job, an internship, it could be volunteering, it could be any number of things that’s approved by the program director,” HopeTech director Rebecca Masterson said. “The third thing we’re doing is putting in a schedule of community meetings and social events. So the programming at these events will be things like financial literacy and budgeting, how to sign a lease, how to cook your own meals. Independent life skills that these young adults are going to need when they transition out of HopeTech.”
Wilson said the program targets foster youth because of how historically disadvantaged that group has been in Arizona. He believed EVIT had the resources to find a solution that would create positive change on a systemic level.
“At EVIT we change lives by loving our students and serving our communities. We always look for creative solutions. What’s the most disadvantaged sub-group in Arizona? Foster youth,” Wilson said. “We had to do better as a community. We had been trying to embed our staff in the foster community and we’ve been very proactive building relationships there.”
The program was funded thanks to state lawmakers allocating $10 million to EVIT in 2022. Construction has been ongoing.
Applications are set to open in March, while the residential center will open its doors in July. According to the press release, the center will initially house just 16 students, but over time it may house as many as 64 at once.
Masterson said she hopes the program sees more applicants over time, but wants to make sure the launch goes smoothly before expanding the scope or scale of HopeTech.
“We want to make sure that our foundation is as solid as possible. So that’s why we’re opening with 16 and we’re calling it a pilot program,” Masterson said, “EVIT is making really significant changes to their program to allow us to also open applications for the semester after that. So we’ll start with the 16, we’ll see if anyone had to leave or if people are successfully transitioning out, we might open another unit in a later semester and from there we’ll start phasing up to full capacity.”
Speaking at Friday’s event, Mayor Giles said that he’s a big fan of HopeTech and hopes to see other programs like it throughout the city.
“I’m thrilled. It addresses one of the critical needs in our community, which is the bad job we are doing of dealing with youth aging out of foster care,” Mayor Giles said. “They’re at-risk. I hope that we have many more facilities like this in Mesa as soon as we can, because it’s a critical need.”
Wilson echoed the mayor’s excitement and also thanked EVIT’s governing board for making the HopeTech project possible. Wilson believes a project like HopeTech could change the lives of foster youth.
“I love my children more than any words to describe, but my children aren’t any more or less valuable than anybody else’s children,” Wilson said. “Unfortunately, there’s literally thousands of foster children that haven’t had the opportunity to have that support. It’s our belief that if we could do that, if we can create that environment, then we’ll be giving them a leg up on what their adult life might look like.”
EVIT is a public technical trade school providing career training at two central Mesa campuses to East Valley high school students and Phoenix-area adults. EVIT serves the communities of Mesa, Chandler, Queen Creek, Tempe, Scottsdale, Gilbert, San Tan Valley, Ahwatukee Foothills, Cave Creek, Fountain Hills and Apache Junction. More than 6,000 students enrolled at EVIT this school year.
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