By Shirley Hawkins
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — Imagine being an 18-year-old foster youth who has “aged out” of the foster care system and is forced to leave his home with no resources and nowhere else to go.
Los Angeles County is home to nearly 30,000 foster youth, making it the largest foster care system in the nation.
Statistics show that 20% of these young adults become homeless immediately after aging out of the system. One in three emancipated foster youth are currently living on the streets, couch surfing or living out of their cars.
When they leave foster care, they face the world with unresolved trauma, little guidance, no credit history, no savings, and in many cases untreated mental health struggles.
For 14 years, a local nonprofit organization known as the RightWay Foundation has sought to assist former foster youth to find a path to support and stability.
The executive director of the RightWay Foundation is Franco Vega, a former foster youth who saw the need to help the foster population with a holistic approach through four pillars: housing, employment, mental health and community.
In 14 years, Vega’s organization has helped more than 1,500 foster youth between the ages of 18 and 25, and most of them have emerged as productive citizens.
Vega said that many foster youth struggle with lifelong trauma after leaving foster care. Many have suffered from being shuffled from placement to placement, giving them none to little permanency in their lives.
“The first thing we do when a former foster youth comes to us is to enroll him into Operation Emancipation,” Vega said.
“It is a 32-hour trauma-informed and healing-centered employment readiness workshop which integrates mental health services with employment services and financial literacy,” Vega said. “Youth learn how to recognize and regulate their trauma responses and triggers, learn functioning skills, and begin to build self-awareness.
“They tackle such topics as stress management, communication skills, and problem-solving in their personal and professional lives.”
Upon completion of Operation Emancipation, youth are provided access to one-on-one therapy, housing navigation, case management, job coaching, employment opportunities, workplace mentoring, vocational training, financial capability coaching, and community.
Jimmy Gilmer Jr. was in prison for 36 years and found out about the RightWay Foundation through the California State Prison Program for incarcerated inmates.
“I had dyslexia, I stuttered. I got caught up in the streets,” Gilmer said. “L.A. was the drug capital of the world and I started selling dope and got sent to prison.”
In prison, Gilmer ran a program that helped inmates earn their general equivalency degrees for 12 years. He also ran classes helping inmates get books so that they could get their degrees in social and behavioral science.
“I worked for nonprofits in prison and I started getting job offers,” he said. “I got out of prison on June 11, 2024 and I have been at RightWay for about 13 months as a job developer.”
Gilmer is happy to be at RightWay.
“RightWay gave me a special family,” he said. “We work as a team and work together. I make sure that our kids are taken care of, no matter what.”
A former foster youth, Juan Camacho enrolled in the RightWay program in 2022.
“I had just been released from the juvenile justice system and my roommate told me about RightWay,” said Camacho,
who grew up in Long Beach and was recruited into a gang at the age of 11.
“As I grew, I was homeless and I experienced a lot of trauma,” he said. “I needed housing. I always had to sleep on the floor or house surf at a friend’s home, but I turned my pain into power. After I completed Operation Emancipation, Mr. Vega gave me a chance to become a youth development specialist at RightWay. Without RightWay, I still might be struggling or back in jail or homeless. At RightWay, I gained a second family.”
To combat the lack of housing for foster youth, the RightWay Foundation has purchased a multi-unit complex in Koreatown for homeless transition-age foster youth.
“This Koreatown property marks the first step toward eradicating homelessness for foster youth,” Vega said.
“We’re not just providing housing, we’re providing healing, stability, and a pathway to independence.”
One person who has staunchly supported RightWay is actress Amy Adams, who has assisted the organization for nearly a decade.
“(Mr. Vega) called upon his own traumatic childhood to inspire him because he understood the barriers that are put in place for foster youth aging out of the system,” Adams said. “He developed a comprehensive program that assists with mental health, supportive housing, work programs, financial literacy and so much more for foster youth in Los Angeles County and his goal is to stop the flow of foster youth into homelessness, incarceration, and poverty.”
“She’s the real deal,” Vega said of Adams. “She’s shining a light on us. And it’s a big light.”
Shirley Hawkins is a freelance reporter for Wave Newspapers. She can be reached at shirleyhawkins700@gmail.com.
