Become a Ridgefield A Better Chance Host Family and you will have an opportunity to gain as much as you give!
Since 1987, Ridgefield A Better Chance (RABC) has been providing academically talented and highly motivated young women of color from educationally underserved areas the opportunity to live and learn in Ridgefield. The program helps prepare these young women for college and a successful future as active and effective contributors to society.
The educational, social, and cultural enrichment offered by the Ridgefield ABC program benefits the Scholars and the Ridgefield community and our host family program is a key element of their success. RABC is welcoming two new female scholars entering Ridgefield High School in the fall and are seeking Host Families interested in supporting these young women.
What does it mean to be a Host Family?
These young women leave their families to come to Ridgefield and live together in the RABC house with a Resident Director. Host families offer scholars a “home away from home” one to two weekends a month and an opportunity to experience the community by participating in normal everyday family activities – from chores to social functions. This broadens the scholars’ experiences and often builds life-long relationships with their host families.
The main criteria for being a host family is to be loving, accepting, and welcoming to our scholars. Some host families have young children; others may be couples without children, or families with adult children. Host families live in or close to Ridgefield and their Scholars fold into the Host family activities on Host weekends. Host families need to have space for a Scholar to stay, but homes come in many shapes and sizes. During Host family weekends, scholars may join host family activities, attend sporting events for host “siblings”, meet their own friends for pizza (with Host parent permission), help cook dinner, and sometimes just enjoy a few hours of quiet time outside of the usual rigorous academic schedule.
Alex, a middle school aged host “brother” says of his RABC “sister”, a 2021 RHS graduate, “She was always there for me. I could always go to her for an opinion that wasn’t biased, and she helped me make better life decisions”. He and his Scholar sister enjoyed watching low-budget horror movies together (more than they enjoyed doing the dishes together) and their friendship continues long after graduation.
The RABC Board and the host family coordinator help ensure Host families and Scholars feel supported and informed throughout the relationship. We encourage any family interested to please reach out to Kirsten Salley (ksal5118@yahoo.com or by phone: 203-536-8778) or visit www.ridgefieldabc.org for more information.