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 model his organization is promoting in which employers provide both a job and a housing subsidy so a newly hired young worker has stable housing while employed. "We're asking corporate America to give our youth housing and a job at the same time," Vega said, adding that the Right Way Foundation also trains employers to act as mentors and supervisors rather than relying on punitive management styles. Vega said his program pays workshop participants a stipend of $400 for a five‑day session called Operation Mastipation, and that the program enforces punctuality and workplace standards to simulate a real job experience.

Nira described efforts at KIPP in the Spotlight to develop a registered apprenticeship program that pays youth while they earn a credential. "It's gonna allow the youth that we work with to get paid, get certified in video editing right now," she said, noting plans to expand into other fields. Apprenticeships were presented as an alternative pathway to credentials and paid work that avoids forcing youth into a traditional four‑year college trajectory.

Joshua Lazando emphasized campus support programs and the need to reduce stigma. He pointed to Guardian Scholars and Expanded NextUp programs at California community colleges as existing supports and urged youth to use available resources. "The state, the government are the youth's parents. You are responsible for getting them through life," Lazando said, calling on public institutions to treat foster youth as a continuing responsibility and to fund research on how stigma affects uptake of services.

Speakers described practical barriers that limit youth access: instability caused by frequent placement or school changes, limited early exposure to work and networking, inter‑state transfer problems for benefits and campus slots, and complicated or opaque application processes for internships and college supports. One guest said employers sometimes misinterpret behavior tied to homelessness or trauma and that housing stability can change employment outcomes: an employer that learned a hire was homeless "had a little bit more empathy and said, okay, this kid is just homeless, so we're not gonna fire him," Vega said.

The group also voiced concerns about federal workforce funding levels. Vega warned that a proposed reduction in Department of Labor funding would shrink internship and apprenticeship dollars; he cited a current figure of about $15,000,000,000 that he said could fall to roughly $10,000,000,000 under incoming budget cuts, a change that he said would reduce available slots.

Guests urged concrete policy and program actions: set aside internship and apprenticeship slots specifically for system‑impacted youth, simplify application processes and eligibility transfers across jurisdictions, fund trauma‑informed and culturally competent training, and recruit system‑impacted people into decision‑making roles. They also encouraged employers to reserve paid internship or apprenticeship seats and to provide housing subsidies or case management tied to employment.

The conversation closed with calls to action for both institutions and youth. Vega asked corporate leaders to "give us slots, hire our foster youth," while Lazando encouraged youth to claim available supports: when applying for college or campus services, acknowledge foster‑care status to access financial aid and programs. "You have to take all the money that you can get, live it up, get into the programs," Lazando said.

The podcast episode linked resources and programs mentioned during the discussion, including apprenticeship planning, stipended workshops and campus supports such as NextUp and Guardian Scholars (details provided by guests).