The ability to secure and maintain employment is crucial to making a successful transition to adulthood. This is especially true for youth who are aging out of the foster care system and may not have the family support, hands-on work experience and life skills needed to become emotionally and financially self-sufficient. Not surprisingly, within four years of leaving foster care, 70% of these youth will be on government assistance, 50% will be unemployed and half will experience homelessness.

iFoster, Inc. is a national, collaborative network of more than 100,000 foster care agencies and their caregivers dedicated to ensuring that every child growing up outside their biological home has the resources and opportunities they need to become successful, independent adults. In 2021, iFoster collaborated with Eisner Health to establish Community Health. Through this pioneering AmeriCorps-based workforce-development program, iFoster pairs 100 youth (ages 16–21) who are transitioning out of foster care with 10-month job assignments at Eisner Health, one of the largest federally qualified community health centers (FQHCs) serving low-income residents in Los Angeles.

Community Health participants receive critical soft- and hard-skills training. They also gain paid work experience providing essential patient services, such as helping Eisner Health patients to access benefits, navigate resources and schedule appointments. They are given the opportunity to earn free certifications as Community Health Workers, Peer Specialists and Medical Assistants, and they are guaranteed interviews and permanent jobs after completing the program.

Community Health aims to interrupt cycles of poverty by providing foster youth with a pathway to livable-wage jobs in public health that enable them to become self-sufficient and financially independent when they leave foster care,” said Serita Cox, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of iFoster, Inc. “With the increasing demand for health care personnel nationwide, our program could be easily expanded in other FQHCs nationwide. Recognizing the need to support young people in foster care, AmeriCorps recently commissioned iFoster to complete a study of how AmeriCorps might evolve their other workforce development programs to better engage foster youth.”