The nonprofit Cincinnati Youth Collaborative (CYC) says it plans to maintain key elements of a once federally funded program designed to help low-income and first-generation students prepare for college.
The program — Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP — has existed in Ohio since the late '90s and has been consistently funded through federal grants from the U.S. Department of Education. That was until late 2025, when service providers at schools across the state were notified by the Trump administration its funding would be discontinued immediately.
The administration had threatened funding for universities and temporarily withheld funds for some programs at K-12 schools throughout 2025 over the White House's Office of Management and Budget's concern that they "promote a radical left-wing DEI agenda."
Jimmie Lake, COO of Cincinnati Youth Collaborative, said the notice came as a surprise since the program doesn't serve students based on race, and had been awarded funding to continue until at least 2028.
Since 1999, Ohio's GEAR UP program has received federal grants four times. The last time was in 2021, when the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce (ODEW) received $28 million to spend over seven years on reducing barriers to college and helping meet the state's workforce goals. In 2025, the program was active at 17 Ohio high schools, including locally at Mt. Healthy and North College Hill.
Lake says that although the funding had been pulled for the rest of the academic year, CYC had gathered enough money to help its current students finish out the rest of 2025 and the 2026 spring semester.
"We did not want it to have a negative impact on the youth," Lake told WVXU. "We have great community partners as well as programs that we were able to roll in."
ODEW states that GEAR UP's focus is on embedding a college-going culture in target schools and communities by providing students with an academic and financial boost through mentorship, help with career exploration and scholarships.
Lake says the service is too valuable for students at Mt. Healthy and North College Hill to let it disappear completely. CYC is working to build local financial support for the program so it can still exist for the 2026-2027 academic year, though likely not in the same form.
"We have created another program called Next Level Pathways that is a composite, scaled-down version of the GEAR UP program," he said. "I see this as an opportunity to engage our community and show that these programs that were in place are valuable and can lead to success for our youth."
Lake says the change will mean switching from a model that was federally funded and administered by the state to one entirely locally funded and run. He wants any organizations that might be interested in supporting local students to contact CYC directly to find out where they can help.
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