Fostering Youth Independence

Fostering Youth Independence (FYI) was founded in 2017 and has become Santa Clarita's largest and most comprehensive support organization for youth aging out of the L.A. County foster care system without the love, support and stability of a family. With a mission to equip foster youth to complete a post-secondary education and become successful, independent adults, FYI is changing lives by giving foster youth, ages 16 to 29, the support they need to break cycles of poverty and abuse. With a dedicated program staff of eight plus over 100 volunteers, FYI actively assists 100 youth annually with educational needs, financial aid, college applications, emergency assistance, getting a driver's license, referrals for vision, dental care, therapy, and physicians, and helping them find housing, jobs and so much more! Each foster youth is assigned a caring adult volunteer "Ally" to provide the encouragement, guidance and assistance they need. For a student with no parental support, they value of a dedicated, caring adult cannot be overstated. Each Ally is trained and screened before being assigned to a youth. The Ally then establishes a relationship with the youth to better understand his or her needs and goals and becomes a consistent person to rely upon. Each youth and his or her Ally is assigned to a Case Manager who oversees their relationship, makes sure the youth's needs are met, and ensures that the Ally is supported.

Since its founding in 2017, FYI has served over 200 foster youth who live or go to school in Santa Clarita, and new participants are joining every month. Since they began participating in FYI, 49 youth have graduated from high school, 29 have earned associate degrees, 23 have completed trade programs, 17 earned their bachelor's degrees, and 3 graduated with master's degrees! Eighty-six youth have secured safe and stable housing, and most have gotten jobs and taken other strides toward independence as a direct result of the support they received from FYI.