Cal-SOAP Today 

Since its inception, Cal-SOAP has been administered by the California Student Aid Commission, with the advice of a 12 member, legislatively mandated advisory committee. The individual operations of each Cal-SOAP are governed by a local advisory board comprised of member representatives who set the policy for the consortium and determine the type services or activities to be rendered to students. Consortium member representatives are comprised of secondary and postsecondary schools and community agencies. Today, Cal-SOAP projects operate in sixteen locations throughout the state.

The sixteen Cal-SOAP projects in the state of California include: San Diego and Imperial County, South Coast, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Central Coast, San Joaquin Valley, Central Valley, Merced, San Jose, East Bay, San Francisco, Solano-SUCCESS, Sacramento, North Valley, North Coast, and Gilroy. 

The Cal-SOAP projects bring together school districts, public and private colleges and universities, community-based organizations, and private sector partners to form a consortium. These consortia serve as instruments for focusing the outreach efforts of a region of the state into programs and activities, which minimize duplication of effort by individual institutions. While each of the sixteen projects offers services that are specific to the needs of its local community, there are some common activities such as advising, tutoring, parent outreach, and college awareness workshops provided by the consortia.

Each member of a Cal-SOAP consortium contributes financially. Individual projects apply each year for continued state funding. State law requires each consortium to achieve a one-to-one resource match between the State and the contributions from its member colleges, universities, community agencies and private sector organizations. Over the past two decades, the Cal-SOAP program has also provided necessary salary and work experience for eligible postsecondary school students. The majority of these student services are being utilized by the consortia as Tutor/Peer Advisors.