Opportunity Through Education

Each grant season, our inboxes are flooded with stories of survival, pain, hope, courage and determination. The messages of many single moms masquerading as mere mortals, “performing superhuman feats without a cape,” as our own Live Your Dream Awards recipient, Shirlee Draper once said.

Each Year We Invest in Women:

$2.8M

Invested in Education Grants through the Live Your Dream Award Program
1,700

Women and their Families Empowered through the Live Your Dream Awards

We know education is the tool to achieving women’s social and economic empowerment. This is why we invest more than $2.8 million in education grants to 1,700 women every year through the Live Your Dream: Education & Training Awards for Women program.

See the Impact We're Making Together

Education holds the power to transform women’s lives, families and whole communities.

Research has shown that single motherhood and lack of a college degree are two of the strongest indicators of poverty.

All of the women we support through the Live Your Dream Awards provide the primary financial support for their families while working towards a college degree or gaining skills through specialized training programs. Most of these women are also survivors who have overcome enormous adversity in their lives.

The Ripple Effect: Women Helping Women

Many award recipients choose to work in areas that help others live their dreams: 79% of Live Your Dream Awards recipients enter helping professions such as nursing, legal and social work, with the intention of helping others improve their lives. This results in a ripple effect that continues the positive cycle of women helping women.

I want to be able to make a change in people’s lives, especially my kids’ lives... I want to be that role model for them.
Rebecca Shuflin, Live Your Dream Awards Recipient

Extraordinary Story: Rebecca Shuflin

Rebecca Shuflin of Humboldt County, California, is working to rebuild her life from scratch. The single mother of six is driven by her passion to help homeless families and survivors of domestic violence, an area she is all too familiar with on a personal level.

I found myself homeless, in an emergency shelter for domestic survivors with all of my children. I had no income, no job skills.
Rebecca Shuflin, Live Your Dream Awards Recipient

Without financial aid, single mothers like Rebecca have little to no means to contribute financially to their educational expenses.

Fact: Single moms spend more than 50% of their income on housing expenses and a 1/3 on childcare.

The Live Your Dream Awards are unique because they enable recipients full financial autonomy to offset any costs associated with their efforts to attain higher education or skills training, such as tuition, books, childcare and transportation.