Thanks to an $8,000 donation from Trico Electric Cooperative, lending partner CoBank and a special needs program administered by Youth on Their Own (YOTO), homeless youth in southern Arizona are able to continue their education.

YOTO’s Special Needs Program provides financial assistance to homeless youth for rent, utilities, clothing and school-associated fees. Trico and CoBank’s combined investment supported 30 students with special need requests last school year.

“Thank you for your tremendous financial gift,” YOTO's Marissa Cassellius said. “The youth we serve are an incredibly vulnerable population of young people who have been abandoned by their parents and are forced to face harsh realities of homelessness entirely on their own. Academic performance and school attendance often deteriorate as these kids must focus their attention on attaining the basic essentials for daily survival.”

About one third of the students receiving assistance attended schools in Trico’s service area, the majority of which were in Marana High School, and 12 of the 30 students graduated this past spring. CoBank has donated $19,000 on behalf of Trico through its Sharing Success program, which matches donations by cooperatives to non-profit organizations in their communities, for the last four years.

“These graduates have achieved a critical step towards self-sufficiency and can look forward to lifelong economic benefits such as better job opportunities and higher wages,” Cassellius said. “Together we are making a difference in southern Arizona and changing lives.”

Trico, located in Marana, Arizona, is a nonprofit, member-owned cooperative providing safe, reliable and economical electricity to its members.