'A second family:' Nonprofit helps LA County teens in foster care achieve college dreams

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Some of the most disadvantaged people in Los Angeles County are thousands of young teens and children in foster care, and a local nonprofit is helping them successfully transition into adulthood.

"It was very scary, but also very confusing as well," said UCLA junior Laila Kegler, who entered the foster program when she was in middle school.

"I remember that very night where I was informed by the cops at that time that I would not be going home tonight."

She spoke a little bit about her experience at the "Foster The Conversation" event in Santa Monica in honor of National Foster Care Awareness Month.

"Sometimes the lights being out because my former parents didn't pay for it. Sometimes not having food on the table, having to go to food drives to get food. I don't want that for my future kids and also I don't want that for anybody else," said Kegler.

That future is unlikely for Kegler thanks to the nonprofit United Friends of the Children, which hosted the panel discussion and works to make sure foster youth don't let their trauma dictate their futures.

"The bio, psychosocial, emotional growth is stunted because they were impacted by the trauma, and so then academics has been affected," said United Friends of the Children Program Manager Esmeralda Calderon.

Academic assistance is offered beginning in middle school. There is also housing assistance for youth who age out of the foster program.

"They can live with us for three years, and our goal is to make sure they're never unhoused after they come into our program," said United Friends of the Children CEO Matt Strieker.

What the non-profit is doing is working. As it stands, only about 4% of foster youth in L.A. County graduate college. Kids in the program - more than 98% - graduate with a bachelor's degree.

"It's really hard to be open, especially considering the experiences that I've had as a child, especially to adults," said Kegler. "United Friends of the Children was the first program that's ever entered my life to actually support me and, so I personally view United Friends as a second family."

"It's been a process, and it's going to still be a journey, but this program has been an amazing help and I hope that they keep helping more people," said Dominic Reyes, another participant of the program.

And there's even more work being done.

La La Land Kind Cafe hosted the Santa Monica event this week, and its 27-year-old owner started a nonprofit years ago to help foster youth find jobs.

The café has 13 locations in California and Texas. Their goal is to mentor, train and hire 10 former foster youth every 12 weeks.

"Not enough good people know what's happening to even get out there," said owner and CEO Francois Reihani. "If they're volunteering or fostering a child, and even something as simple as that, could prevent them even getting to a point where they age out and come and need a job, which was just Band-Aids. So for us now, it's about, 'How do we create that?'"

The need is great. Right now in L.A. County, there are tens of thousands of kids in the foster program, and these are the types of kids just waiting for someone to make a difference in their lives.

"There is this just spark in me that I've got to keep going. I can't give up," said Kegler. "I made it too far, like, I can't just drop it and then just leave it, even if the situation gets hard, so I keep telling myself, 'You have to keep going,' not only for myself, but potentially for those behind me."

If you're interested in donating to United Friends of the Children, click here. For more information on foster care in L.A. County, click here.