Preventing Youth Incarceration through Financial Literacy

Support for foster and systems-impacted youth

South LA

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

For decades, LA County has experienced a continually worsening crisis of crime, incarceration, recidivism, poverty, and homelessness. LA County has the largest system of prisons in the world and the highest rate of foster youth in the country. Within our primary service area of South LA, 56% of residents live below the federal poverty level and nearly half the population over the age of 25 has less than a high school education. One in 3 LA County justice-impacted youth are rearrested within one year, and people who are incarcerated more than once are 13 times more likely to experience homelessness than the general public. Our community appears on the SB 535 Disadvantaged Communities Map, the AB 1550-Designated Low-Income Communities Map, and Catalyst California’s Justice Equity Need and Service Index maps as being in the highest area of need, with the greatest markers for criminalization and system involvement, and the lowest levels of economic and educational development services.

Our Pathway Youth Adulthood Training Program is crafted to address the shared thread that we believe clearly and directly connects youth crime, incarceration, poverty, and homelessness: A lack of financial literacy, adulthood skills, and emotional awareness. Our innovative, trauma-informed curriculum is designed to equip systems-involved youth with the critical financial and emotional skills necessary to build sustainable, independent lives.
The Pathway Program is a formal 10-week peer mentorship course that provides education on financial literacy, emotional intelligence, anti-recidivism, and functional adulthood skills. Currently, this program operates at two Dream Home Foster Care facilities in South Los Angeles, serving 15 students per facility, per quarter. It is designed to annually serve 120 at-promise, systems-impacted youth annually, ages 16 to 18, who are aging out of residential foster care and who are at direct risk of unemployment, homelessness, and recidivism upon leaving this facility. Students work to understand emotional spending triggers, develop budgets and savings plans, and gain functional life skills. They work to develop computer literacy, time management, and problem solving skills, submit resumes, create professional emails, and learn to dress for the workplace, solve problems, and manage time. This program partners with local workforce training programs and fair chance employers to provide participants with access to clear employment opportunities.

This program seeks to graduate 120 systems-impacted at-promise South LA foster youth each year. Our holistic training model merges practical financial education with emotional intelligence development- what we call "Emotional Finance." Through this lens, participants not only learn to manage money effectively but also gain insight into how emotional patterns and stress can influence financial behavior. This dual approach helps youth identify and interrupt the financial triggers that often lead to poor decisions, relapse, or system re-involvement. By introducing tools for credit building, income planning, and responsible budgeting—paired with coaching on emotional resilience- young people will have a roadmap for a more secure and purpose-driven future. Our program provides the structure, mentorship, and actionable knowledge that justice-involved youth need to thrive, not just survive. We believe this will create a future LA that has less crime, incarceration, homelessness, and poverty.