The past two years have been strenuous for all of us, and future college students were no exception. For UNITE-LA and its partners working to ensure students applied for financial aid, the work became even more critical and challenging. Our work to support first-generation, low-income students and their families in accessing financial aid resources for their post-secondary goals has been a mainstay of UNITE-LA for more than 20 years.

Because of the pandemic, UNITE-LA took its previous, in-person convention model and re-imagined it into a virtual format. This most recent school year, UNITE-LA, with support from partners and volunteers, held eight, live financial aid webinars, hosted three Super Saturdays where 28 locations provided on-the-ground support in helping students and families fill out financial aid applications to meet the March deadline, provided 110 Cash for College completion workshops throughout greater Los Angeles and saw 71.9 percent (or 20,932 youth) LAUSD high school seniors complete their FAFSA or CADAA applications - quite above the California 52.1 percent completion rate!

Although our programming for the upcoming year is not confirmed, CFC is exploring the possibilities of resuming in-person programming. More details to come!