Tuition

Friendship Fund

Open Connections is committed to enrolling young people from diverse economic, ethnic, racial and social backgrounds. The OC Friendship Fund is a critical tool in achieving this commitment, in that it provides financial relief to families of OC young people who would otherwise be unable to consider OC as an option.

Ask us about it if you need support.

How to support this fund

Each program at Open Connections has its own tuition, whether it’s a full-day program (as most are) or part-day.

The two main purposes of our tuition structure are:

to make OC accessible for families of all income levels
to bring in sufficient money to cover at least 75% of OC’s operating costs. (Our Annual Giving Drive and fees for other services and products strive to bring in the balance.

Tuitions for the 2008-09 OC year will be as follows:

Full-day programs: $2,625/year each program. (Full day programs include: Open Program, Open Program II, Open Program II/Theater, Group Tutorials, Pre-teen and Teen Choice, Ventures, My Side of the Village)
"Shaping Your Life" Program: $2750/year
Theater Thursday Evening: $900/year
After-Program Programs are $475 for the year when accompanied by a full-day program, $800 if taken separately.

There are several ways that Full-day program tuitions can be reduced:

Sibling discounts
Multi-program discounts
Program/Administrative Support
Additional Bartering
Friendship Fund

Sibling Discounts
There’s a $150 discount for each sibling who enrolls for the year in a full-day program. (This does not apply for the first member to enroll.)

Multi-program Discounts
There’s a $350 deduction for each full-day program beyond the first that a young person takes for the year.

Program/Administrative Support
There is the potential for an initial tuition reduction of between $300 and $600 for what we call Program/Administrative Support. This barter option involves supporting the OC community in any of a number of ways, such as helping with errands, providing housekeeping services, arranging for visiting artists, supplying materials, assisting with landscaping, etc.

Additional Bartering
There can be an additional, negotiated deduction for families who wish to barter for an even larger percentage of their tuition. This more significant form of bartering usually involves some way of reducing OC’s operating costs. For example, making electrical or plumbing repairs, providing building construction or maintenance services, assisting with substantial fundraising, serving as a Parent Resourcer (a trained helper) under the tutelage of the Lead Facilitator of an OC program or maintaining the OC website are all ways in which parents are currently benefiting from this option.

Friendship Fund
The OC Friendship Fund is available to those families who demonstrate financial need beyond their ability to barter. As with all such financial arrangements, after the pre-registration meeting, if you are interested in exploring options requiring assistance from the Friendship Fund, then please contact our Sustainability Coordinator, Rick Sleutaris. The process will begin with a conversation between your family and Open Connections with the ultimate goal of finding a solution that meets your family’s financial requirements as well as Open Connections’ need for financial sustainability.

A Final Word on Tuition:

Of course we need to assure the financial sustainability of OC, which means taking in enough money to pay all of our bills. At the same time, we are truly committed to creating an economically diverse community. Therefore, we encourage ALL interested families to contact us in order to see if OC will fit your family's need.