Our Game Plan
Our Mission: Increase opportunity and economic mobility for single-parent families through higher education.
Here are some of our most recent wins—as presented during our 2023 Under Review event.
Who We Are
Raise The Barr is a 2Gen program led by a 2Gen team on a mission to maximize the potential of every individual. Co-founded by NFL Linebacker Anthony Barr and his mother, Lori Barr, our organization is built on their lived experiences. We are committed to increasing the economic mobility for single-parent students in Minnesota and California by providing them with the holistic resources they need to complete their education, including resources they need for their children to thrive. Promoting college success among student parents is critical to improving racial, ethnic, and gender equity in higher education access.
We place single-parent students at the center of our work and elevate their voices in advocacy work and leadership advising, including holding positions on our board of directors for two RTB alumni scholars.
Our Goals
Our Story
Raise The Barr was co-founded by mother and son Lori and Anthony Barr, who were inspired by their lived experience navigating higher education and early childhood as a single-parent family. Lori’s journey as a young mother pursuing college while raising Anthony, and the multigenerational support that made it possible, shaped their shared commitment to expanding opportunity for families like theirs. Today, their story fuels our mission to invest in single parents and their children through holistic, community-driven support. Learn more.
The Problem?
While more than 20% of college students in the U.S. are parents, nearly 70% of them are single mothers—many of whom are pursuing degrees while raising children and working to make ends meet. In California and Minnesota, student parents face especially steep challenges. In California, home to the largest population of student parents in the nation, 86% of single parent students report experiencing housing insecurity. In Minnesota, persistent childcare gaps and rising living costs make it difficult for single parent students to complete their degrees. Yet most colleges and surrounding communities in both states still lack the coordinated resources needed to support single parent students and their children. Without the right supports, too many of these families remain stuck in cycles of poverty.
Our Solution: Tackling Poverty Through a 2Gen Approach.
The two-generation (“2-Gen”) approach builds family well-being by intentionally and simultaneously working with children and the adults in their lives to access new resources, solve problems, and sharpen existing skills. Our programming is modeled on the 6 pillars of Whole Family Wellness as identified by Ascend at The Aspen Institute and implemented using the framework of Mobility Mentoring—a strength-based approach that provides a roadmap for people living in poverty to reach economic independence. Using Mobility Mentoring, we guide our scholars to achieve their goals in education and career pathways, family life, finances, and health.
At Raise The Barr, we support single-parent students in California and Minnesota by offering programming that includes financial assistance, community building, and professional and personal development.
We believe in the “curb cut effect” which, simply put, is the concept that laws or policies that are created to benefit a vulnerable group, such as single-parent students, often end up benefiting all. To make post-secondary schools more equitable, we believe in creating space for single-parent students and their families who are least supported by the system, which would benefit multiple generations of learners, as well as the broader population. Additionally, promoting college success among single-parent students is critical to improving racial, ethnic, and gender equity in higher education access. Single-parent students are at the center of all our work. Together, we plan and implement programming that leads to well-being for the entire family.
Review our full 2024 Annual Report.
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