The core of Foster Nation’s work is the belief that we all have the power to be better than the circumstances we were born into. And sometimes we all just need a meaningful connection to help us reach our greatest potential. Over the past year, we have been able to improve, expand, and scale the CareerX coaching program that helps Los Angeles foster youth develop life, social, and professional skills in order to be self-sufficient after foster care.

Foster Nation’s mission is to support and empower foster youth aging out of the system by providing transformative connections and opportunities to reach one’s greatest potential. Through CareerX, Foster Nation matches current and former foster youth with a volunteer trained career coach to develop the foundational life and professional skills, social networks, and confidence they need to enter the workforce and adulthood.

CareerX: 365 Days of Progress

Our CareerX program launched in April 2022 with Cohort 1.0 seeing an increase in educational and employment attainment, career readiness, and leadership capabilities for 32 foster youth. In March 2023, our second cohort of CareerX kicked off with 72 participants – 36 foster youth and 36 coaches – and this group will end their program in November 2023. The third CareerX cohort, composed of 49 foster youth, began their journey in August 2023. In total, these three cohorts have served 117 foster youth in Los Angeles County. These three cohorts have also engaged just as many career coach volunteers, who have deeply enjoyed the program and the relationships that they’ve formed with their foster youth mentees.

Given that CareerX began as a pilot program in 2022, we are so proud of the program’s tremendous growth, from 32 foster youth participants in the first cohort to 85 participants in 2023, because we have more than doubled our enrollment capacity this year!

Successes & Areas for Growth

We have been able to learn from the past year’s successes and challenges in a variety of ways, and we constantly strive to improve the program to better serve the needs of foster youth.

One of the biggest lessons learned was the importance of in-person engagement to ensure a deep connection between mentee and coach. Given that CareerX is a virtual program, we did not anticipate the importance of meeting in-person being super critical for the foster youth to feel a connection and deep trust to their coach. In fact, some of the youth who dropped out of the program never met their coach in-person, but were connected virtually. As a result, we will lean more heavily on in-person events and engagements with the next cohort.

We also learned that, while the core competencies and career attainment are important to measure, it's very important for foster youth to be engaged and connected with each other, as well as other coaches in the cohort. The goal of this program has seen a serious pivot into an emphasis on CONNECTION and COMMUNITY over just "metrics" of getting a job and learning skills. Our newly implemented monthly in-person meetups will center around that idea. For our most recent and future cohorts, we aim to foster feelings of connection and community as a baseline of transformation for the youth in the program.

Finally, we learned that, while having a playbook and curriculum is a useful framework for our coaches and youth, it might behoove us to give more flexibility, agency, and autonomy to the youth participating in the program so that our coaches can co-design what each individual youth is trying to achieve in their own lives. We need to empower the youth to tell their coaches HOW and WHAT success looks like to them. With this in mind, we will let our dyads know that the program should be individualized and tailored to what the youth needs – sometimes that means going over the curriculum or a lesson plan, and other times, it means just meeting them where they are.

As a result of changes we have made to our application, training, and case management techniques between Cohort 2.0 and Cohort 3.0, we have seen a far higher retention rate in Cohort 3.0 than in Cohort 2.0. We are constantly iterating and improving on the data we are collecting in our application in order to match in a more effective manner, and we are hoping to be able to identify early on exactly what the youth needs and is hoping to get out of the program. Our goal is that the coach can walk into their mentorship meetings with everything they need to meet their mentee exactly where they are.

We are also providing increased support for our coaches, hosting more comprehensive trauma-informed training and sensitivity training. We are always iterating on the tools and support we are providing to the coaches so that they can be the best source of guidance and empowerment for their youth. This all goes back to improving participant retention rates and ensuring that we are providing the best, most meaningful experiences for our CareerX foster youth.

One of our biggest challenges has been in receiving eligible referrals for former foster youth. This pushed us to pursue more partnerships with referral sources, including the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and Guardian Scholars Programs. These new referral channels account for almost 50% of the participants in Cohort 3.0. Additionally, as a result of this collaboration, we are thrilled to share that we have seen an increase of 61% in youth applications as well as 20% in coach applications from Cohort 2.0 to Cohort 3.0. These partnerships have also introduced CareerX to a younger population of transitional-aged youth so that our average participant age is now 23, compared to 26 in the 2022 cohort.

What makes us most proud of our CareerX program is the responses that we’ve gotten from the foster youth who have participated. One foster youth noted of their experience, "I am feeling encouraged and empowered. I have been dealing with personal issues, but knowing that my mentor is helping me through them makes me feel like I will get through this no matter what. It's reassuring to know I have her coaching me and guiding me towards my goals, despite life circumstances right now.” Another youth shared, “My life will forever be changed. My mentor is a total inspiration that has encouraged me to keep pursuing my dreams.” This is why we do what we do – because we can make a tangible difference in the lives of foster youth.

We have also tracked qualitative metrics of participant satisfaction with our program. All participants were asked to complete a survey detailing how well they understood goals and material, the helpfulness of the coach, and session enjoyment and effectiveness. Over 91% of participants rated these categories a 4 or 5 on a scale of 5– indicating strong and very strong achievement of these metrics.

The primary objectives that we outlined in this program were to remove barriers to success so that foster youth can focus on what matters most: getting an education and finding a career path so that they can live fulfilling lives after foster care. We are proud to share what the youth in our program have achieved:

From Cohort 1.0…

• …76.9% of foster youths who were seeking a job reported that they secured employment during the program
• …82% of foster youth expressed satisfaction in their work performance (an increase of 13% from the beginning of the program)
• …86% saw increased levels of confidence in their ability to achieve their professional goals
• …83% of foster youth saw improvements in their mental health
• …94% found their mentor’s impact to be beneficial to their personal and professional lives, demonstrating the unique and positive impact that mentorship has on transitional-aged foster youth.

From Cohort 2.0…

• …100% of foster youth have seen improvement in their ability to secure a job interview
• …41.7% of foster youth who were seeking a job reported that they have already secured employment during the program
• …91.7% of foster youth feel more organized, have strengthened their resumes, and have seen an improvement in their job preparedness.
• We are so excited to see the results from our third CareerX cohort!

The Future of CareerX

Looking ahead, Foster Nation is excited to continue its work of transforming the lives of foster youth through meaningful connection and community. We are currently in the planning stages of building out the technology platform to sophisticate and improve our matching algorithms in order to match dyads on personality assessments. This platform will serve not only as a centralized platform for matching and session feedback, but also as a communication hub between participants, tracking and learning, job opportunities, and alumni networking. These technological upgrades will enable us to scale our work and increase the number of foster youth we can serve, helping us reach our ambitious vision to ensure every foster youth aging out of the system can have a coach in their corner to help them reach their greatest potential.

With the community’s support, we are removing barriers to success and making a meaningful impact in the lives of youth aging out of the foster care system. Foster Nation was able to improve and expand CareerX to empower more foster youth across LA to go from surviving to thriving – from “impossible” to “I’m possible” – with the help of many community partners, funders, and child welfare champions. That said, our work would not be possible without the active participation and willingness of the many foster youth and volunteer coaches in the community who work together diligently to transform each other’s lives, and in turn, improve the outcomes and lives of the foster care community!

We encourage anyone interested in learning more about how to participate in CareerX as a coach or foster youth participant to visit our website for more information!

Media Features:

Tamron Hall – Maggie Lin Interview (May 2023) 

Today Show - (May 2022)

Good Day LA - ‘Foster Nation’ Supports Youth Aging Out of the System (May 2022)