Foster Youth Receive $2,000 Surprise Graduation Gifts — With Help From Hollywood
Fifty-four new college graduates — all of whom are youth in the foster system — received a surprise gift in late May. At a graduation celebration thrown by Ready to Succeed, an L.A.-based nonprofit that worked with each student throughout their college journey, each matriculating student got a $2,000 graduation gift, money that will help them reach their next goal in life.
“They have all overcome tremendous odds to get this far,” says Romi Lassally, the co-founder and co-executive director of the Hollywood-loved nonprofit Ready to Succeed. Those odds are highlighted in a sobering statistic: Only 4 percent of youth who age out of the foster system in Los Angeles County get a college degree.
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By contrast, scholars in Ready to Succeed’s wrap-around career and personal development program have a remarkable success rate: Ninety percent graduate college in 4.5 years and 89 percent find “strong entry-level jobs in fields they want to work in within six months of graduation,” according to the organization.
“Ready to Succeed has incredibly passionate and effective leadership and has since its founding,” says David Ambroz, the best-selling author of the memoir A Place Called Home and a former foster youth, who was the keynote speaker at Ready to Succeed’s third annual graduation celebration. “What’s great about Ready to Succeed is that it not only provides resources, it also provides wrap-around support and constant and consistent communication. They understand what’s necessary to get across the finish line.”
Lassally is a former development executive and producer in Hollywood, whose first job was as a secretary on the Fox lot. She founded the nonprofit in 2016 with the group’s co-executive director Patrick McCabe, the former director of an L.A. private school, New Roads elementary.
She tells THR that there’s no secret formula to how Ready to Succeed helps the students it supports. “it’s not rocket science. It’s just a human approach,” she says of the program, which is built on a few key pillars.
There is financial aid: “We have a really good scholarship program,” says Lassally, whose organization is supported by a number of entertainment-industry companies including Amazon Studios, Bad Robot, Brillstein Entertainment Partners, CAA, Disney-ABC Television Group, Illumination Entertainment, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Participant Media, Sony Pictures, 3 Arts Entertainment, UTA and Universal Music Group.
“None of this works without money,” underlines Lassally, adding that when it comes to paying for college, most of the students with whom Ready to Succeed works “are at least $5,000 short every year.”
Ready to Succeed also provides mental health and wellness services. “It’s through our pro bono therapist or through a network of other resources. The mental health part is huge,” she says.
But the critical foundation of success, according to Lassally, is helping students “build networks, to build social capital.” It’s something that students from privileged backgrounds enjoy (and may take for granted), and that students from less privileged backgrounds not only can lack access to, but also may lack confidence in acquiring.
To address that, Ready to Succeed focuses on helping students find paid internships, on getting them informational interviews, and on coaching them on career and job finding skills as a way to build confidence.
“I think what’s unique about our program is that we’ve been aware that relationships are really important. That networks are important and that these students didn’t naturally have them,” says Lassally.
“We also learned the hard way in the beginning that some weren’t ready to leverage those experiences,” she continues. “That’s why we started this two-day program called Camp Ready. This year, it’s all about how to tell your story and how to own it. We’re really making them write their reésumé.”
Lassally recalls first figuring out this approach early on in the life of the organization. “We thought, ‘Ok, let’s just try to do what we did for our own kids. Let’s introduce them to people and ask people for internships and leverage our networks for good. That was the initial thought. We love connecting people and we’re really good at this. We started with six young people from different schools. We’d put them in our cars and drive them to our friends’ offices,” she says.
Seven years later, Ready to Succeed has 19 employees and serves 400 scholars and alumni. “We continue to work with our alumni for two years into the workforce,” she says. Most Ready to Succeed scholars attend UC and Cal State schools. Post-graduation, says Lassally, “We have students this year working at Amazon, at Disney, at Johnson & Johnson, at Canyon Partners. They are working in entertainment and finance and real estate. Several are going to grad school and getting their PhDs. Many want to give back to the community. A lot of them work in the nonprofit and public service sector, which we love and encourage as long as they can make a living wage. Several are working in tech jobs.”
Asked what people can do to help Ready to Succeed, Lassally says that the organization is looking for volunteers and also asks that professionals “consider our students for internships and entry-level jobs. You can potentially open a door and help build out a network of people for students who don’t have built-in or inherited networks.”
Even an informational meeting can be helpful. Says Lassally, “People don’t realize how impactful a half-hour conversation can be. It’s just a small act but it can be a moment of connection.”
What continues to motivate her, she shares, is “kids that go through the system and and get through all these hurdles and then make it to college and then the thought that they might not finish college — that was really unacceptable to us.”
Coming up is Ready to Suceed’s annual Project Dorm Room fundraiser, which raises money to provide essentials for college students — a $750 package provides a student with sheets, blankets, pillow, a mattress pad, bath towels, laundry bag, hangers, power strip, lamp, shower caddy, college hat and T-shirt, school supplies, pizza gift card, face mask and all required toiletries.
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