Prevention and Early Intervention for TAY Youth!

Youth economic advancement

County of Los Angeles (select only if your project has a countywide benefit)

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

Los Angeles County’s child welfare system has 20,00 children in its care, making it the largest in the country. Over 30% of LA’s unhoused community reports previous or current involvement in the child welfare system. Only half of the state’s foster youth graduate high school within 4 years, and only 3% are able to continue to graduate with a college degree—and currently, 28% of inmates in California’s prisons have histories in foster care. As you can see, after languishing in the child welfare system for years, young Angelenos are left to fend for themselves with very few viable supports. As these systems-impacted children face disproportionately high rates of homelessness, job insecurity, lack of employability, and other situations that prevent economic mobility, CASA/LA developed this new programming to intentionally support these young people, as they age out of the system, with housing, an educational or professional endeavor, and understanding to be truly independent.

CASA/LA's PEI programming offers comprehensive services, such as direct case management, service linkage, peer support, and specialized trainings. Our PEI Resource Navigators connect referred youth to essential services, including mental health care, educational services, housing, and other critical resources. The program also facilitates peer support opportunities and life skills training to promote self-sufficiency, foster a sense of community, and equip young people with the tools they need to improve their circumstances. Our focus includes ensuring access to essential resources, especially housing, transportation, technology, educational support, workforce development, and other vital benefits (such as CalFresh). Our PEI team also connects TAY who are pregnant/expectant youth to services that will help them not get separated from their child and build up necessary parenting skills, supports children on the waitlist for a CASA, and serve as a valuable resource for CASA volunteers who are working with TAY/NMDs. Our waitlist has roughly 70 youth on any given month, and our PEI programming ensures these youth are supported prior to getting a CASA volunteer. By employing a trauma-informed approach that centers on the expressed goals and needs of the youth, CASA/LA helps prepare systems-involved TAY to successfully transition out of care with vital long-term supports in place, empowering them to become self-sufficient as they move towards their budding adulthood.

Within a year, CASA/LA aims to support approximately 100 systems-impacted TAY and NMDs who are at risk of aging out of the child welfare system without an adequate plan in place.Building up our PEI programming will ensure we can provide these young people with transformative services that will allow them to truly be independent after they leave the child-welfare system. This novel approach to supporting TAYs will build up their confidence, given them vital life skills, help them learn more about finances and budgeting, give them avenues to support themselves, and give them the ability to not only live on their own, but to learn how to be responsible and believe in their own ability to support themselves. This programming not only provides these young Angelenos with the resources that most apply to their current needs, but also will give them the tools to sustain their sufficiency.