No foster youth should end up homeless. We invite you to join us in opening doors for these young adults. Together, we can transform foster youth futures.
Mentorship
A training program for employers and organizations to help managers mentor young workers, increase retention, and train a new generation to become productive leaders.
Organization Background
The RightWay Foundation (RightWay) was established in 2011 to support current and former foster youth and re-entry youth, ages 18-26+, as they transition into adulthood. After observing firsthand how unresolved trauma creates barriers to job retention and economic well-being, RightWay pioneered Operation Emancipation (OE), a service delivery model that addresses past trauma, promotes healing, and supports successful employment by integrating mental health services and employment services.
In the last thirteen years, RightWay has served as a lifeline for over 1000 young adults, ages 18+, in Los Angeles County. RightWay’s programs counter resistance to mental health treatment with the goal of a long-lasting job, building bridges to employers, housing, and support that enable youth to cross from a point of trauma and isolation to the permanent footing of self-sufficiency and community. The RightWay Foundation does critical preventative work to end the pipeline from foster care to homelessness, unemployment, incarceration, and poverty by providing foster youth with therapy, job training, community support, and connections to opportunities in the workforce.
Cultural Competent Trauma-Responsive and Healing-Centered Training
The RightWay Foundation trains and supports employer partners and community-based organizations that employ and serve transition-age youth, as they work to integrate trauma-informed and healing-centered best practices into their workplace culture. Young adults impacted by the foster care, justice, and mental health systems have experienced a significant amount of trauma without receiving the support that is critical to their healing, emotional well-being, and self-sufficiency. Studies show that youth exiting these systems encounter high rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), unemployment, homelessness, incarceration, recidivism, and social isolation, citing trauma as an underlying factor.
Employers and non-profit partners have reported that a trauma-informed approach to workplace management and operations helps companies retain employees and builds morale of young adults and employers/service providers. In the last thirteen years, RightWay has served as a lifeline for over 1000 young adults, ages 18+, in Los Angeles County. RightWay’s programs counter resistance to mental health treatment with the goal of a long-lasting job, building bridges to employers, housing, and support that enable youth to cross from a point of trauma and isolation to the permanent footing of self-sufficiency and community. The RightWay Foundation does critical preventative work to end the pipeline from foster care to homelessness, unemployment, incarceration, and poverty by providing foster youth with therapy, job training, community support, and connections to opportunities in the workforce.
RightWay’s trauma-responsive and healing-centered training
It can be adapted to meet the needs of any organization
1. What is Trauma?
2. The 3 Es of Trauma (Events, Experience, Effects)
3. Adverse Childhood Experiences
4. A Trauma-Informed Approach
5. Protective Factors
6. Building Supportive Relationships with Young Adults as a Primary Protective Factor
Our 8-hour interactive training incorporates discussion, scenario-based activities, role plays, and group work.
The training highlights the various impacts of trauma and emphasizes the primacy of the relationship with young adults who have experienced trauma.
Training encourages participants to engage in self-reflection, so that they gain an understanding of how their own personal experiences, biases, and perspectives impact the relationship with young adults.
For participants to get the most out of training, larger groups should be divided into cohorts of no more than 20 people.
