When Ar’reiona Green was accepted to Sacramento State last year, she knew she would need books and school supplies. She didn’t expect to need a toolbox. Or hangers. Or that her dorm room wouldn’t come with a fan or a lamp.
Like many first-year students, Green, who is headed into her sophomore year and plans to become a plastic surgeon, was excited about her future adventures. But coming up through the foster system in California, she didn’t know anyone who had gone to college. While she felt ready for her classes, life as a college student was mostly mysterious except for what she’d seen online.
That’s where Dec My Dorm stepped in. The program works with more than 140 foster youth headed to college, hosting an annual event in July to kit out each student with sheet sets, pillows, a shower caddy and connections to other people in the same situation.
Green took part in the summer of 2024, leaving with several duffel bags filled with the things she needed, including many items she didn’t know she would need, like dish soap.
“I was expecting bed stuff and towels,” Green said. “I wasn’t expecting them to give me period products and school supplies. They were giving out school merch and stepping stools and toolboxes. They really went above and beyond.”
Ar’reiona Green and her aunt loaded up on dozens of new items to outfit her college dorm at Sacramento State, where she’s headed this fall to study health sciences. Photograph: Dawn Fallik
The program started in 2018 when Jill Franklin, a program manager of the Independent Living Program for the department of children and family services in Los Angeles county, met a student who came from the foster system. The young woman described arriving at the University of California at Berkeley with just a trash bag, not knowing that dorm rooms are spartan affairs with a desk, chair, bed with an oddly sized mattress – and that’s it.
“She didn’t have a pillow or a sheet or a towel, and everybody else was there with their parents and their bags of stuff,” Franklin said. “At the time, I was editing college essays and I realized, we never ever thought about that first day.”
Franklin started with a small Amazon wishlist and a handful of students. It was particularly important that the kids were involved in the process as much as possible, she said, because they were used to living in spaces that were not their own.
“You might have a 17-year-old who’s on the football team and says: ‘I don’t want Minnie Mouse sheets,’ but oh well, that’s what it is, and they probably aren’t going to be there for very long and it’s not their bedroom,” said Franklin. “It was very important that they pick their own bedding, their own towels and their own blankets, so that when they walk in that room, or someone else walks in that room, it says: ‘This is who I am.’”
In 2022, she met Phyllis Shinbane, who had retired as director of operations from Connecting a Caring Community, a non-profit organization based in Calabasas, California. Like many people, Shinbane had been unaware that foster youth often have nothing they can bring with them to college, but realized this was a need she could help fill.
Along with CCC’s executive director, Lisa Kodimer, and the Dec My Dorm co-chair Allison Weiss, they raised more than $40,000 in donations and connected with sponsors and volunteers to help 142 students in 2025.
“It’s just leveling the playing field,” said Shinbane, who hopes to expand the program to other states. “It’s just putting them in a room where they’re equal, where they’re not different, where their past doesn’t define them, that they are the same as every other college student that came from a supportive, structured, safe home.”
Ar’reiona Green’s dorm room. Photograph: Courtesy of Ar’reiona Green
Eight per cent to 11% of people in foster care obtain a bachelor’s degree, said Sarah Wasch, associate director of the Field Center for Children’s Policy, Practice & Research at the University of Pennsylvania. Although most people in foster care can remain in the system until they are at least 21 years old, many foster parents don’t have the funds to furnish a dorm room.
“There’s a disconnect around who is responsible to oversee that transition,” Wasch said. “For youth in foster care, it’s very unclear if it’s the foster family’s responsibility, the case manager’s, the court’s or the legal guardian’s.”
While some states have programs addressing foster care and higher education, efforts remain piecemeal and there are plenty of gaps to fill, like dorm room needs and storage over summers, she said. Most colleges have support systems specifically aimed at supporting students who come from the foster system, like the Guardian Scholars program in California. Those focus mainly on financial support for tuition and meals, and advising for classes, not for student life.
At one point, legislation was introduced to create a federal center that would coordinate state efforts, but it did not pass, Wasch said.
Kelisha Williams, a foster student from Kentucky who graduated from Harvard University last spring, said she wished there had been a program like Dec My Dorm when she was going to school. Although Harvard provided a list of dorm room essentials, she watched a lot of YouTube videos to figure out what she would need to fit in and worked to save the money.
She emphasized that it’s not just about having the essentials, like a shower caddy and a bar of soap. Not having those things could make foster students feel like they don’t belong.
“I knew that was going to be a big hurdle, and I did not want anyone to know that I was not like them, or that I didn’t deserve to be there,” Williams, 22, said. “So I kind of just made sure that I worked the summer before to have everything that I needed, even, you know, if it was kind of plush objects like posters and things like that.”
Shinbane said that many volunteers were enthusiastic about going with students to set up their dorm rooms, if desired, but there were legal concerns about privacy. The organization offers other resources, like free eye-screening and glasses, and providing students with a resource folder with QR codes linking students to food assistance, clothing programs and campus support.
They invite former participants to come meet the new class headed to college, so they can offer advice and support.
“This program is like a living, breathing thing,” Shinbane said. “It evolves every year, and our goal is to provide them with services and resources to help ensure their success.”
