Furnishing Success For Foster Youth in College

When Lily arrived at UCLA, she carried everything she owned in one hand. “Moving into my dorm with just a pillow and a throw blanket felt daunting,” she recalls. While dormmates arrived with elaborate, expensive, color-coordinated bedding sets and an array of toiletries, Lily faced the same harsh reality as her system-impacted peers. “If you ask most foster youth what it feels like moving from one place to another, they will tell you their stuff was put in a trash bag.”

The numbers are stark: while 93% of foster youth say they want to go to college, only about 4% go on to earn a four-year degree. And even for those who do enroll, without targeted support roughly one in five drop out of four-year schools and nearly half leave college altogether within their first year.

Founded in 2017, Project Dorm Room addresses the first and simplest need: ensuring foster youth have essential supplies when they arrive on campus. Yet the program’s impact runs far deeper than providing bedding, towels, toiletries, and school supplies. It provides a sense of community.

“For most students, moving into a dorm is a rite of passage. For foster youth, it can feel scary and lonely without family support. Project Dorm Room changes that moment – it says: you belong here, you are supported, and your dreams matter. With something as simple as a set of sheets, we’re not just furnishing dorms – we’re equipping futures,” says Romi Lassally, co-founder & CEO of Ready to Succeed.

And, it’s working: the program has grown from serving 75 students in its first year to outfitting the dorms of roughly 350 incoming former foster youth each Fall.

To date, Project Dorm Room has served more than 1,000 students across more than a dozen CalState and UC campuses, as well as a handful of out-of-state schools. 

Their model is transformative. “Being a part of Project Dorm Room allowed me to allocate what was left of my funds for school supplies. I no longer had to make a decision about basic necessities,” says Lily, PDR Recipient.

Project Dorm Room also serves another critical function: it connects students with Ready to Succeed’s comprehensive Career Accelerator Program, which begins sophomore year. About 30% of Project Dorm Room students apply to join, gaining access to coaching, internships, mental health resources, and $5,000 basic-needs scholarships. The results are extraordinary: 100% of program participants graduate college – 10 times the national average for foster youth – and 85% secure career-track jobs within a year of graduation.