Image: The University of Georgia has been selected by the William T. Grant Foundation as a 2026 Institutional Challenge Grant recipient, receiving $650,000 over three years to support a research-practice partnership with The Multi-Agency Alliance for Children (MAAC). This award is part of a $2.6M national investment by leading philanthropic foundations, including the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, and Spencer Foundation, to build strong university-community collaborations aimed at reducing inequalities for young people.Through this partnership, UGA and MAAC will identify predictors of postsecondary success and systemic barriers for youth aging out of foster care and evaluate the MAAC’s LEADS program, which provides individualized, wraparound educational supports for youth experiencing foster care in two Georgia counties. This project, Nothing About Us Without Us, will center youth voice throughout the project to ensure that those with lived experience in foster care are involved in research design, interpretation of findings, and dissemination of results. At UGA, this work will be carried out through the Embark Georgia Research Consortium (EGRC), a multidisciplinary research team focused on examining the experiences and outcomes of college students who previously experienced foster care or homelessness. The research team brings together expertise from several units across UGA’s campus, including the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education, the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, UGA Public Service and Outreach, College of Public Health, and the School of Social Work.Erik Ness (McBee Institute) will serve as the principal investigator, alongside three co-principal investigators— Heather Rowles (MAAC), Lori Tiller (School of Social Work), and David Meyers (Fanning Institute). Tiller and Meyers also serve as co-directors of the Embark Georgia Center. The team also includes Grace Bagwell Adams (College of Public Health) as the UGA Fellow, Victoria Salzman as the MAAC Fellow, Daniel Gibbs (School of Social Work) as the quantitative researcher, Amy Stich (McBee Institute) as the qualitative researcher, and a future graduate research assistant. We’re honored to be one of the four institutions nationwide selected for this prestigious grant and look forward to sharing more stories about the impactful work from this partnership. Read more about the Institutional Challenge Grant recipients here: https://wtgrantfoundation.org/announcing-the-2026-institutional-challenge-grantees-foundations-award-2-6-million-for-research-practice-partnerships Type of News/Audience: General News Research
