History

A Better Chance is the preeminent resource for identifying, recruiting and developing leaders among young people of color throughout the United States. Its mission is to substantially increase the number of well-educated young students of color who are capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.

In the 1960s, A Better Chance began as an innovative experiment designed to expand educational opportunity for talented young people of color. Originally, A Better Chance identified and recruited highly-motivated students and referred them to independent boarding schools nationally. In the 1970s, A Better Chance expanded its placements to include public schools. These students reside in a house staffed with resident directors and tutors, and they attend the local public school. These homes are supported and managed by the local community.

A Better Chance serves as a national network for deserving students, and places them in over 300 boarding and day schools across the country, or in one of 20 public school programs including Staples High School in Westport, CT. More than 17,000 A Better Chance alumni have gone on to pursue further education and careers due to the opportunities provided by the A Better Chance program. Participants who qualify for and are accepted into the program have access to unsurpassed educational and leadership opportunities.

Since opening its doors in the fall of 2002, A Better Chance of Westport has been transforming lives through educational opportunity at Staples High School, one of the top public high schools in the nation and Connecticut. The scholars are placed in an environment that reinforces academic excellence, improves their college acceptance chances, and supports these talented young men of color to realize their greatest potential.  Beginning in 2005, our first graduates left Westport and now we have more than 27 Staples High School graduates who have gone on to four-year colleges/universities, graduate school and their careers.