Strategy for independence

The New York Times recently had a great exposé on former foster youth and their challenges to get a college degree. The article featured numerous youth in Los Angeles and the Guardian Scholars program that supports former foster youth with tuition assistance, housing, and supportive services while pursuing their education.

The challenges are enormous, considering that only, “six percent of former foster youth…earn a two or four year degree by the age of 24” while “34 percent have been arrested by age 19.” The odds are in favor of incarceration over education. Failure at such an early stage in their efforts to achieve independence can negatively influence their ability to be successful. The amount of perseverance required is extraordinary. Is it any wonder that only six percent of the youth graduate from college?

The challenge is only made greater because often these young people have had a very inconsistent education. The movement from placement to placement let alone dealing with any specific learning challenges they may have is very daunting.

And what about the other 94 percent of former foster youth, what happens to them? If the education system is not the pathway to independence, then what will help them to succeed?

Our experience at Youth Moving On has taught us a number of lessons with regard to what are good strategies for achieving independence. In addition to encouraging and supporting youth to achieve a good education, we have also found that equally important is to prepare youth for employment. With the proper orientation and coaching many youth are able to experience the gratification that comes from employment. A good job validates skills that often have been underestimated and provides the financial rewards that are essential for true independence.

On any given year YMO graduates several youth who although they may not have attained a college degree have secured a good job that rewards them with a career path, medical benefits, and financial resources. In the process, these young people experience the kind of success that bolsters their self-esteem and strengthens them to address other challenges. Among our recent graduates we have youth now employed in teaching, counseling, and the medical field. In order to assure their permanent place in these fields, further education will be required. Knowing they have successfully been employed, they pursue that education with some confidence and may be better equipped to get a degree.

Like anything else, there is no one sure strategy to achieve independence. More often than not, what breeds success is success itself. If achievement on the job front opens the door to future education, then we just might have a chance at increasing the odds in favor of independence over incarceration.

Honoring Youth, Volunteers, and Donors

The donor and volunteer community for Hillsides came together at our annual Circle of Excellence dinner to honor philanthropists for giving their time, resources, and special talent to serve vulnerable children, youth, and families living in Southern California. On behalf of Hillsides, I am so fortunate to have generous individuals, corporations, and foundations like yourselves because it is with your effort our agency can sustain this great mission. 

The evening program began with two Youth Moving On residents speaking about their background, experience as youths transitioning to adulthood, and the impact that the YMO program has made in their lives. These youth testimonies were truly inspiring to hear and demonstrated how critical our support of former foster youth is to ensuring they are on a successful path to adulthood.

Our dedicated staff can provide programs such as YMO because of the ongoing generous support we receive from the community. The Circle of Excellence dinner, hosted at Pandora on Green, brought together 148 guests to pay tribute to our honorees. Receiving the Hillsides Community Angel Award was Starbucks, who was represented by Jennifer Vanderpool, Pasadena District Manager for the coffee company. Becky Garnett and Connie Endter, accepted the Hillsides Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of Margaret Campbell, who is no longer with us, but lives in our hearts. Longtime supporter, Dee Fisher, received the Hillsides Angel Award. Our Special Recognition Award recipients were Cathy Brennan, Glenn Keller, and Victoria Mordecai. Each individual demonstrates a social conscience to create lasting changes in the lives of the most vulnerable that we serve. Through their resources, coordination of activities, and advocacy, Hillsides is able to provide the necessary programs and serves for children, youth, and families.

Just as exciting as it was to pay tribute to the tireless work of our honorees, I was delighted to announce that Wells Fargo selected Hillsides as the charity to be featured on the iconic Wells Fargo stagecoach during the Tournament of Roses Parade on New Year’s Day. What a wonderful way to ring in the New Year and kickoff our centennial celebration! Especially significant is the opportunity of a lifetime that a few children and youth will get by riding on the stagecoach.

The Circle of Excellence was the beginning of other gatherings held during the holidays. This week we held an H100 Member Social so new members of this volunteer support group could meet one another and learn more about YMO and our holiday giving.

We rely on your continued support as we get ready for the holiday season. And as you are attending holiday gatherings, serving a cherished family meal, and unwrapping gifts, please think of us and know we are certainly thinking of you for giving our children, youth, and families restored hope and a brighter future in the upcoming year.

Inspirational Stories of Youth

One challenge of being Hillsides CEO is setting time aside for direct interaction with those we serve in spite of numerous commitments. The other day I had the opportunity to visit Youth Moving On (YMO) and met with a handful of residents. I was inspired by their efforts to move beyond the challenges they face to a path that leads them to success.

A young woman, who has been at YMO only a few months, talked about how YMO is the next step for her on a journey away from gang involvement to pursue education, employment, and permanent housing. Articulate, self-aware, and resolute, she inspired me not just by her accomplishments, but especially her dream to develop a way to protect children from sex trafficking.

As I sat there visiting, a young man, a long-time resident of YMO, came in excited about having successfully passed his EMT exam. This allows him to realize a long-held dream of entering the medical field. No one would have thought that possible just a few years ago, when he was released from the juvenile detention system and sought out the services offered at YMO. But his hard work and conviction has served him well and today he is on his way.

And finally, there was another young man who had just returned from purchasing his first suit to wear to our annual donor appreciation gathering this Thursday. There he will share his story of how hard work and sacrifice has helped him begin to build the financial foundation for his independence.

Each one of them is inspirational more so because the obstacles are so great in such a challenging economic environment. Their stories prove dreams, matched with hard work and supported by a dedicated community, can make what some would consider impossible achievable.

How appropriate that their success will be shared with our donor community. Were it not for the extraordinary generosity of our donors, little of what we accomplish would be possible.

"Job" Well Done For YMO Residents and Employers

As many of you know, Hillsides sponsors a very innovative program of services for youth transitioning from the foster care system to independence called Youth Moving On. The services provided include supportive housing, counseling, educational orientation, job readiness and financial literacy.

When YMO was started several years ago I believe that one of the tenets of the program was to encourage the participating youth to pursue an educational program, whether vocational training or enrollment at the local community college. Our experience, however, has taught us that as important as education is as a fundamental component to long-term success, employment is the decisive factor to achieve independence.

So through the generous support of the Deutsch Foundation, Hillsides and a number of other providers of services to this population have set out to develop a curriculum. The curriculum aims to lead these young adults through a process that enhances their ability to secure employment and begin to establish the foundation of financial independence.

This past Sunday 60 Minutes aired a segment featuring a very innovative employment program that not only trains the unemployed, but also places them in jobs and pays them during an initial employment period. This mitigates the cost to employers who accept participants as interns. The end result is a dramatic increase in full-time employment. This program sounded very familiar to me because it is exactly what we do with the YMO residents that participate in our job readiness program.

Villa Sorriso in Pasadena

For the past several months we have paid the salary of a YMO resident who interned at a local restaurant. The restaurant provided this young man with professional training and a supportive environment and slowly, but surely he acquired skills and confidence. As the internship drew to a close, the young man applied for a position at the establishment and we got news yesterday that he has been hired as a full-time employee.

A4

This young man is just the most recent example of the success of this effort. To all the young adults who have persevered through these internships and have been rewarded with not just employment, but equally as important, confidence and hope, congratulations! And, of course, to the employers who partner with us to make this innovative program possible, especially Karen Tanji of Villa Sorriso and Mark Mertens of A4, thank you for believing in these young people.

One youth at a time, in spite of the challenges, YMO and Hillsides make the extra effort to help all we serve achieve their dreams with milestones like employment.

Homeless Youth Step into Affordable Housing

More than 5,000 youth, when they turn 18, emancipate or “age out” of California’s foster care system, and nearly 1,000 youth exit care each year in Los Angeles. They lose access to all state-funded foster care services and, for the most part, also lose connections to adult support received while in the foster care system. Research has indicated that without housing, education or emotional support, 65 percent of foster youth will face homelessness, twenty percent will be arrested or incarcerated, 46 percent will complete high school and only one percent will graduate from college. For these reasons, Hillsides founded Hillsides Youth Moving On (YMO) in 2004. 

By providing comprehensive services such as transitional housing, education, employment, mental health and mentoring support, we help youth transition successfully into adulthood. YMO helps youth avoid negative circumstances and achieve long-term self-sufficiency. Former foster care and probation youth take their first steps to independence when they arrive at YMO. Today, YMO has increased its capacity to accommodate ten more youth in permanent housing. 

Over the summer, we began a collaborative effort with First Place for Youth to secure funding from the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to provide affordable housing and support services for a minimum of twenty youth over the next two years.  Permanent Housing, unlike transitional housing, has no pre-determined amount of time for youth to receive housing.  Youth can stay in their apartments and assume the lease as long as they pay their rent on time.  To ensure their success in this endeavor, YMO will continue to provide comprehensive case management, mental health, and career planning to all youth to guarantee a seamless transition to full self-sufficiency.

YMO also partnered with New Economics for Women (NEW), an organization that empowers disinvested communities, who willingly offered eight one and two bedroom units for our youth located at La Villa Mariposa apartments in Los Angeles. At our YMO complex, we have assigned two studio units for youth participating in this new collaborative.

This week we hosted a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony at La Villa Mariposa apartments. The Reverend Cecil L. Murray, board member of LAHSA, shared words of inspiration and encouragement to our youth. Youth present were overwhelmed with the thought of having their first place. They expressed how far they have come.

For these youth, reaching this milestone in their journey is incredibly significant. Having experienced systemic trauma, abuse, run-ins with the law, or bouts of homeless, they have prevailed from these situations. We have created conditions and placed a great deal of attention to offering a comprehensive program whose pathway leads to their successful transition into self-sufficiency and independence.

Our collaborative relationship with LAHSA, First Place for Youth and NEW is so important in trying to alter the daunting statistics for these youth. With the help of others, whose goal is also to support youth in their transition from foster care to successful adulthood, we can make significant impacts in the lives of these youth. I am privileged to be part of their journey into adulthood and thankful that others have joined along their path.

Reason to be proud…

Folks often ask me how we measure success for the children and youth we serve. Certainly we can point to any number of outcomes or achievements that demonstrate improvement whether it be in their emotional well-being, social skills or educational performance. But the true measure is ultimately expressed in the success of each and every individual we serve. The challenges that are addressed must never be underestimated and as a result their achievement is made only more remarkable.

Recently Thomas Lee, the director of Hillsides’ transitional housing and services, Youth Moving On, shared with all staff the remarkable story of one of our residents. What follows is Thomas’ presentation of Victor a young man who all of us are very proud.

Just over a year ago, Victor was an undocumented immigrant living at Optimist Homes, in need of housing and a path that wouldn’t jeopardize his probation and the attendant likelihood of deportation hanging over his head like the sword of Damocles.  He applied to Youth Moving On (YMO) for housing and services and was accepted because he only had six months more of probation which would then determine his ability to obtain residency.  All he had was a high school diploma and a fire in his eye that said: “All I want is a chance.”

Victor joined the YMO program and promptly began an internship at one of our best sites: A4 (a team sports and athletic apparel company).  While in the internship, he improved his English, business math, and job seeking skills.  He also enrolled full-time into Pasadena City College and started working toward his associate’s degree. 

Within six months, he gained his residency, helped co-found the Indigenous Peeple Clothing Company, and was hired and given full employment by A4. 

With all those accomplishments, Victor didn’t stand pat.  He travelled to Le Blanc, France with YMO’s internship abroad program, saved over $8000, and was honored by Optimist Homes, Michaela Pereira from KTLA Channel 5 Morning News, and given a commendation by Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe. 

Through it all, Vic has remained humble and hungry for more.  He’s successfully completed his first year of college and is continually looking for more opportunities to make the most of his time at YMO. 

We measure success for Victor and all we serve when they can stand on their own, full of confidence and claim a hopeful future.