Saint Vincent de Paul
Home for Success
Saint Vincent de Paul Home for Success (“Home for Success”) is a project developed by The Society of St. Vincent de Paul District Council of Sonoma County, Inc. (SVdP-Sonoma). The goal is to provide at-risk youth with two essential features for college success – a stable home, and access to an onsite, live-in mentor-coach. Home for Success is dedicated to the educational success of four resident students at a time, each of whom has aged out of foster care or similar settings and become at serious risk for homelessness. Home for Success provides these resident students with additional support as they gain the education and life skills needed to transition to independent living.
​
Home for Success is a fully-furnished five-bedroom, four-bathroom home, with one student per bedroom and shared living spaces. It is located about a half-mile north of the Santa Rosa Junior College (SRJC) campus in Santa Rosa. The onsite mentor, a retired college professor, resides in the home, provides for overall management of the home, and is available for academic and life-skills mentoring as needed.
Students are expected to pay a modest rent, which includes utilities and internet access. The home also provides common household supplies and a partial subsidy of students’ expenses for groceries and personal care
items. Students are also expected to assume responsibility for chores and behaviors appropriate to a shared living situation that has an education focus. Finally, students are expected to pursue all financial aid opportunities available to them so as to minimize the need to work while going to school.
All applicants must have completed high school with a diploma or equivalent. While living in the home, residents must be enrolled in an undergraduate program, taking at least six units per semester, and have a plan to complete an initial course of study within three years. Individuals with less than six college credits at the time of moving in may live in the house for up to four years. Those with six units or more may live in the house for up to three years.
In accepting applicants, priority is given to:
-
students who have been in foster care or similar settings during their teenage years;
-
either are or will be attending Santa Rosa Junior College; and
-
are under the age of 22 at the time of their application.
Next Steps: if you are interested in applying to participate in Home for Success, please complete the initial application form below. After completing this initial application, you will receive a link to a more complete application. You will also be asked to provide a high school transcript and a letter of recommendation from an adult who knows you well. You may also be asked to participate in an online (Zoom) interview.
If you know someone who should apply, please direct them to this page on our web site. Thanks!
Dan Sullivan, Mentor in Residence
Dan Sullivan has a B.A. from the University of Santa Clara and a Ph.D. in economics from Yale University. He is also a professor emeritus at the University of Minnesota, where he held the Cowles Chair in Media Management and Economics.
​
Previously, Dan was the senior economist and director of strategic development for Cowles Media and the Star Tribune newspaper in Minneapolis for 15 years. For more than 30 years, he also served as an expert witness for the government and private plaintiffs in civil rights litigation against the public systems of higher education in several southern states.
After retiring, Dan volunteered at Cookie Cart, a nonprofit urban bakery that provides job readiness, leadership, customer service, and financial literacy skills to low-income youth aged 15-17 from Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Since moving back to the Bay Area in 2020, Dan has also been actively involved with the Catholic Mobilizing Network, the national Catholic organization working to abolish the death penalty, and with various social justice ministries at St. Ignatius parish in San Francisco. Dan has five adult children and 12 grandchildren.