Bright Futures Articles

New Children, Youth and Families program officer Samantha Herron holds years of experience as an award-winning rural teacher, with a keen focus on K-12 education-to-workforce pathways.

Creating easy-to-navigate transfer pathways from two- to four-year colleges and universities is not an impossible task. We need bold action to create the transfer system our students deserve.

Richard Reeves, author of “Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It”, talked about declining male enrollment and other complex and concerning trends before a packed auditorium at Umpqua Community College.

The Alumni Ambassador program has grown in recent years, as ambassadors are carefully chosen to represent priority demographics. Their expertise helps surmount language, geographic, gender and other barriers as they seek out and engage with potential scholars.

Lindsey Frazier and Emily Harger of A Home Away from Home, a licensed child care center in Douglas County, took time to review our SelectBooks children’s collection.

Like many of her friends in the Butte Valley area of northern California, Adriana Ramirez used to spend her summers indoors, taking care of her siblings while her hardworking parents spent long days doing farm work.

An issue brief on the state of child care in Oregon comes to a conclusion that will not be a surprise to working families with children: Child care services are expensive and hard to find.

A recently released brief from the Oregon Voices research team explores Oregonians’ attitudes towards the quality of education in their hometowns.

Discover the inspiring journey of Iván Galicia Sixto, a Linfield University student and Ford Scholar class of 2020, who find his home in teaching language.

Ford Scholar Will Miller connected with his history to create his future and now works at NAYA, the Native American Youth and Family Center.

Over the course of ten years, Yoncalla School District leaders and community members, especially parents of young children, have walked side-by-side reinventing the elementary school’s approach to family and child support.

Analicia Nicholson just started the biggest job she’s ever had: She’s the new superintendent of the Douglas Educational Service District. On a recent Zoom call, she shared her hopes, fears and all the unknowns of the position.

In the wake of 2020’s devastating Slater Fire, a group of leaders in Happy Camp, California and the Karuk Tribe rallied to fill a critical void in their community: child care.

With the blessing of founding members, the Ford Scholar Alumni Association dissolved as an independent nonprofit in 2021 and moved under the umbrella of The Ford Family Foundation.

Jayden Asumendi spent most of the last school year away from his peers, doing his schoolwork at his home in the Roseburg area. And, like many of his peers, Jayden struggled in the new learning atmosphere.

In March of 1995, 20-year-old single mom Amy Van Wey was in debt and alone, living with her newborn son in a school bus in the Little Applegate Valley. “It was not a great combination,” she says.

It was summertime, but one room at Yoncalla Elementary School was alive with the sounds of children — young children. They were in the Family Room, a space where parents and their children can gather, socialize, volunteer and learn.

Welcome to the issue archive for Community Vitality, a storytelling publication published by The Ford Family Foundation from 2000 through 2021.