In his bequest, Charles DeMeo requested that a portion of his funds be used to provide assistance to homeless mothers with young families. In particular, he stressed that support to homeless mothers should enable them to "better learn how to provide for themselves and their families" and "to become full and meaningful participants of society." The DeMeo Scholarship is a vehicle which provides selected homeless mothers with the necessary resources to accomplish that goal.

The DeMeo Scholarship is designed to further the stability of formerly homeless, low income, single mothers who are currently receiving services in a long term support services program and are enrolled, or wish to enroll, in the Santa Rosa Junior College or Sonoma State University as full-time students. Criteria for eligibility include continued enrollment in the transitional services program and proof of full-time enrollment in school.

The DeMeo Scholarship will assist mothers with the economic burden of maintaining both a home and an academic program by supporting both core educational and core household costs. Examples of legitimate core educational expenses include tuition, textbooks and course-work required supplies or fees. Examples of legitimate core household expenses include expenses related to childcare with a provider arranged through the Community Child Care Council or another equally established day care center, expenses relating to transportation, or core household costs such as rent or utilities.

In order to achieve the goal of long-term stability, the scholarship will support the mother up to four years of undergraduate education. The maximum individual scholarship benefit is $5,000 per year, for four years, totaling $20,000.

APPLICATION

Applicants, who have been identified with the help of long-term support services program providers, must complete a CFSC DeMeo Scholarship application. The applications will be scored and ranked based on criteria identified by the DeMeo Advisory Board as being pertinent to Charles DeMeo.s intentions, and the CFSC point system. This system takes into consideration the five areas of: financial need; work history; academic standing; volunteer work/community service; and, extra curricular activities at school. In addition, one letter of recommendation from the applicant.s support services program (on agency letterhead, including the applicant.s expected date of completion, and signed by the executive director, on a counselor.s recommendation) will be required. You can now access and fill out the DeMeo Scholarship Application on our website at www.sonomacf.org, click on Grants and Scholarships, click on DeMeo Scholarship. Complete the application, print it and submit it with the other required materials. Several paper copies of the application have also been provided for your convenience.

Once the overall ranking is completed, the top DeMeo Scholarship applicants will be presented to the DeMeo Scholarship Committee for a final interview and selection.

Scholarship Application Instructions (Word) Scholarship Application (PDF)