Brewing Brighter Futures: Youth Workforce Equity

Income inequality

East LA

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

Through two decades of relationship building with youth in East LA, DTLA, and South LA, we learned that systems-impacted youth face high barriers to employment and economic advancement, creating cycles of poverty that limit opportunities for educational and career success. Economic and social inequities are compounded for youth experiencing homelessness and youth impacted by the justice system, including inequitable access, unstable housing, social stigma, and disconnection from social networks (Urban Institute, 2023). These structural challenges limit youth in patterns of economic exclusion that create persistent cycles of poverty and social disconnect. Without early, targeted place-based interventions that support youth through relationship-centered, youth-focused care and opportunities, systems-impacted youth are barred from reaching critical developmental milestones (e.g., HS graduation, higher education, employment, stable housing, adult autonomy) and economic advancement.

The LA2050 grant awarded to MFC in 2024 enabled us to expand our mentoring services to youth at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall (LPJH) and increase enrollment across all of our mentorship programs. The 2025 LA2050 grant will empower MFC to leverage this partnership with youth at LPJH and launch a coffee shop as a social enterprise for economic opportunity and mobility, offering reentry, unhoused, and FGLI (first-generation low-income) youth a supportive space to gain employment experience and build meaningful community. 
MFC has a proven model for operating a successful barista internship program where youth gain experience in coffee shop operations. For the past three years, MFC has partnered with Spring Cafe to empower youth with paid internships to gain hands-on barista training and develop experience with beverage service, POS systems, and small business operations. MFC has witnessed the impact: youth grow in confidence, skills, and leadership.
MFC will expand its capacity by launching a storefront coffee shop in East Los Angeles to further advance youth workforce equity through reliable employment and mentorship in a supportive environment. This social enterprise will be more than job placement; it will be a launchpad for economic mobility and a space where systems-impacted youth are included, invested in, and rise as leaders.
Most importantly, MFC is co-creating the coffee shop with youth at LPJH so that the space reflects their creativity and hope for their future.

The diverse youth of Los Angeles is the greatest asset of our community. Through this social enterprise project, systems-impacted youth will be empowered to apply their creativity, lived expertise, and strengths to create a Los Angeles that is a place of greater opportunity, economic mobility, and neighborly care. At the individual level, youth will experience the security and dignity of earning a reliable wage, build positive work habits, and develop work history that will build their self-confidence and qualify them for career advancement. At the community level, youth will be connected to a diverse network of mentors who will provide door-opening opportunities and growth experiences that will not only equip them to become competitive in the workforce but also to become contributing members of Los Angeles. MFC’s long-term vision for this social enterprise is to replicate the model at additional sites in Los Angeles neighborhoods, creating a network of mentorship-based workforce hubs.