Mission

The Academy Project (TAP) will provide the education, support, and holistic individual guidance needed to unleash the potential in foster youth in Los Angeles, CA while freeing and fueling their innate desire to thrive.

What We Do

The Academy Project will provide high school aged foster youth in Los Angeles with holistic individual support and education based on an innovative full time alternative engagement model, ensuring each child fully realizes his/her inherent potential. By unleashing each child’s unique abilities, TAP helps them discover a path to a future full of promising possibilities

THE CURRENT STATE OF FOSTER CARE AND EDUCATION IN LA

•Because of placement changes, foster youth can attend an average of 9 schools by age 18
•75% of foster youth in LA are working below grade level
•50% do not graduate high school
•Less than 10% of foster youth in LA attend college
•Only 1.8% of former foster youth have completed a BA

AFTER LEAVING FOSTER CARE
o 51% of foster youth are unemployed
o 40% are on public assistance
o 25% are homeless
o 20% are incarcerated

Through no fault of their own, foster youth are taken from their families because of abuse or neglect and thrown into a world of fear and uncertainty. They are bounced around from placement to placement and left to fend for themselves when they age out by age 21.

For many of these youth, a good education is the best, if not only hope they have to become an independent, successful adult. The unfortunate truth is that the systems that make up the lives of these youth continue to fail them.

The Academy Project will open a school within a school for high school foster youth in Los Angeles, CA. Regardless of placement changes, every student will have the opportunity to attend The Academy for all 4 years of high school.

TAP students will graduate with a solid academic foundation and a dedication to life-long learning. They will leave with a sense of self-worth and personal responsibility. Most importantly they will have experienced stability, safety, security and the endless possibilities that unravel with that experience.