The 48-unit Family Scholar House facility at Elizabethtown Community and Technical College will offer hope to student parents who are pursuing their education. It will help break multi-generational cycles of poverty and allow students to overcome challenges that otherwise would prevent them from achieving their educational and career goals.

Project Highlights

Removing Barriers  

Housing insecurity of student parents creates a significant barrier to successful completion of degrees and credentials needed for workforce participation and advancement. Working together, ECTC and FSH identified available land on the ECTC campus to address affordable housing and also resolve the transportation challenges that create an additional burden. We plan to begin construction in late 2023 and open the campus in early 2025. Your support will help us meet the urgent housing needs of students and their families.

Building Opportunities

The 48-unit FSH facility will be set on ECTC’s campus across the parking lot from the James S. Owen Humanities Building. To address community needs, priority will be given to student parents pursuing high-demand careers in healthcare and advanced manufacturing. In addition to two- and three-bedroom apartments, the campus will include technology and connectivity, a playground, and a family services building with necessary programmatic space and resources for student-parent families

Impacting Communities

This project is about more than affordable housing. However, when a student-parent family lacks stable housing, everything else becomes secondary. By combining affordable housing with comprehensive, holistic services through the strong partnership created by ECTC and FSH, we can create a brighter future for multiple generations and support regional economic development.

By the Numbers

In their first year of partnering with ECTC, FSH has provided services, support, and emergency assistance to 4,566 ECTC students and prospective students. Of those:

• 78% face housing insecurity
• 28% have unreliable transportation
• 33% regularly face food insecurity
• 67% are low-income, with 45% qualifying as very low income
• 60% of students served by FSH are parents/guardians
• 21% identify as a minority
• 20% of ECTC students are first-generation
• 59% of ECTC students are Female

Despite trauma, challenges, and responsibilities, students working with FSH report an average score for their feelings of HOPE of 7 out of 10.

Project Cost and Funding

Total project cost is $14,800,000

Through vouchers and federal Low Income Housing Tax Credits awarded through Kentucky Housing Corporation FSH was able to leverage $11,170,000 toward the development and construction costs. ECTC will invest $550,000.

FSH and ECTC are working together through the ECTC Foundation to raise the remaining funding needed to complete and operate the project, support rental assistance, and address the emergency needs of families living on the campus. This means raising the remaining $3,090,000 through the comprehensive Home for Hope campaign. There is a role for everyone in this effort, from naming opportunities and lead gifts to individual and corporate donations and pledges.

Invest Now

Online Giving

By giving to the Home for Hope campaign through the ECTC Foundation, you can have a life-changing impact while making a tax-deductible donation in a way that’s convenient for you. Gifts of any amount may be made through cash, check, credit card, or pledge for payment at a later date. Donors may choose to fulfill their pledge over a multi-year period of time. Additional options, such as gifts of appreciated securities, life insurance, IRA charitable distributions, and payments from Donor Advised Funds, are also available. ECTC will work with you to develop a payment plan that best fits your needs.