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The Opportunity Gap
The Opportunity Gap is a root cause of why almost half of low-income children become low-income adults.
DREAM boosts educational expectations and aspirations.
Just 9% of youth from low-income families receive a four-year degree. Our aim is to make sure our youth know that they can achieve anything and provide them with the necessary skills to overcome obstacles. Youth who have trusting adult relationships are 52% less likely than their peers to skip school. They are also significantly more likely to enroll in college. 70% of DREAM children feel they can talk to their mentor about going to school in the future. 71% of DREAM parents believe their child will go to college.
DREAM invests in extended learning opportunities, especially over the summer
DREAM builds trusting relationships.
Only 16% of low-income children say they can trust others, and almost 40% have never had an adult mentor of any kind. 92% of DREAM participants report having people they can trust because of DREAM. 80% of DREAM participants feel they have met people in DREAM who they’ll be able to count on in the future. 84% of parents agreed that DREAM has introduced their children to people they can count on in the future. Over 95% of children feel their mentoring relationship is important.
Income-based differences in access to out-of-school-time activities greatly affect later outcomes and may be just as meaningful as test scores in determining educational attainment. Children from low-income housing have less than $1,000 a year spent on out-of-school enrichment activities, compared to over $7,000 from wealthier households. More than half of the achievement gap between lower- and higher-income youth can be explained by unequal access to learning opportunities during the months that they are not in school. DREAM youth and parents feel strongly that DREAM builds a foundation of learning experiences. 86% of DREAM youth say they “go on trips with DREAM where they see and do new things.” 92% of parents agree, “DREAM introduces my child to new experiences.” 77% of children respond that DREAM helps them when they want to try new things. 93% indicate that they feel comfortable in new places.
