Guests on Talk to Me podcast push apprenticeships, employer housing subsidies and trauma‑informed training to expand workforce access for foster youth

On the Talk to Me podcast (date not specified), host Sherry Bradford and guests Franco Vega, CEO and founder of the Right Way Foundation; Nira, workforce development coordinator at KIPP in the Spotlight; and Joshua Lazando, a Los Angeles County Youth Commissioner and former member of the California Community College Board of Governors, discussed barriers that system‑involved youth face when seeking higher education and career pathways and described several programs intended to improve outcomes.

The guests framed the problem as structural: children in foster care and youth who cycle through juvenile facilities often lack continuity, networking opportunities and early workforce exposure, leaving them at a disadvantage compared with peers who have stable family guidance. "The child welfare system really holds our youth back," said Franco Vega, describing how many youth do not get early, low‑demand work experience that helps build job skills and networks.

Those concerns, the guests said, point to three areas for action: more paid training and apprenticeships, employer partnerships that combine hiring with housing support, and trauma‑ and culturally competent curricula that treat training like work.

Franco Vega described a…