Mission

To ensure that every child: is prepared for school, succeeds in and out of school, completes a post-high school credential, and enters a promising career.

The Big Idea

Bright Futures is a diverse community partnership in Monterey County that works to close equity gaps and enhance educational results to guide every young person toward economic mobility.

CalKIDS was launched in 2022 by the State of California to help children save for their future education. In Monterey County, $33 million has been set aside for 64,000 children. CalKIDS provides newborns and eligible low-income children with an initial deposit to begin their college and career savings from the start.

Unfortunately, there is a general lack of awareness of this opportunity; in early 2024 only 7% of eligible families had enrolled. Since Bright Futures started promoting CalKIDS, that number increased by 2%, which has a cumulative impact of $2.8 million.

Bright Futures’ goal is to continue to work with partners and schools to increase the number of children enrolled in CalKIDS and invest in their future.

We are so grateful to be collaborating with Bright Futures to promote the CalKids scholarship program to help students at an early age gain access to higher education. This program was created to help students who qualify for this program dream of access to higher education, and for families to start a savings account with this free scholarship money. This seed money is a great starting point for students in preparation for college/university or a vocational training opportunity upon graduating from high school. Our goal is to reach out to all of the families in the Alisal Union School District in the 2024-25 school year, and encourage parents to register their child if they qualify for this free scholarship money

- Irma Lopez