Education Creates Hope and Opportunity
“When you have a person who believes in you, that’s all you really need.”
Janet, ECHO Client
ECHO
Our goal with ECHO is to provide support to young parents so they can stay in school and create a better future for themselves and their children. Many teen moms feel their dreams of college and a career vanishes when they become pregnant. ECHO can help them keep those dreams alive.
Through Catholic Charities, young women and men receive school and home-based case management services, which include monitoring school attendance and grades. ECHO case managers help the students set goals, and provide them with the support and resources necessary to achieve them. ECHO staff also work closely with parents, administrators, teachers, and guidance counselors to keep these teens in school so they can graduate.
ECHO case managers generally start with helping young parents finishing their HSE (formerly GED) or high school diploma. They also help them find a job, and even obtain scholarships and grants for college. Our staff works in cooperation with officials in Fort Wayne Community, East Allen County, and Whitley County school districts, South Bend Community School Corporation, Bremen High School and Warsaw High School. However, young parents attending any school who live in St. Joseph, Elkhart, Marshall, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Steuben, Noble, DeKalb, Adams, Wells, Whitley, Huntington, Allen and Wabash counties may be served through the ECHO Program.
Why This Program Works
According to the national average, only about 40% of teen parents graduate from high school. Compare that figure with the 90+% graduation rate for ECHO participants. This basic level of achievement has a profound effect on earning potential, which in turn helps keep many above the poverty level.
According to 2015 Bureau of Labor statistics, the average unemployment rate nationally for the non-high-school graduate is 8.0%, compared with 5.4% for a high-school graduate. Similarly, the average weekly income for someone without a high-school diploma is $493, $678 for the high-school graduate and $1,137 a week for the person with a bachelor’s degree.
Make a Referral:
East Region
If you are a resident of Adams, Allen, Huntington, Wabash, Wells or Whitley county, make a referral here.
North Region
If you are a resident of DeKalb, LaGrange, Noble or Steuben county, make a referral here.
West Region
If you are a resident of Elkhart, Kosciusko, Marshall or St. Joseph county, make a referral here.
