Mayor Adams Announces New Career Training Program For Youth In Foster Care

Mayor Adams Announces New Career Training Program For Youth In Foster Care

New York City Mayor Eric Adams was on the campus of Kingsborough Community College (KCC) today to announce the launch of V-CRED, a new vocational training and apprenticeship program that will provide professional opportunities for youth in foster care, ages 16 to 24. Overseen by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS), V-CRED – an acronym that stands for Vocational training that emphasizes a Continuing Responsibility toward Education and Development – brings together ACS, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, CUNY, and several private sector employers to support the youth in their education, career and personal development.

“For far too long, we have ignored young, bright, smart, energetic minds of those who are in foster care,” noted Adams in his remarks. “We have failed to bring a ladder in the room so that people can have an opportunity to climb up that ladder. This program is bringing a ladder into the room. Rather than allowing these young people that age out to wing it, we’re going to be there – and be the wind under their wings – so they can reach their full potential, and place them on a career path so they can move in the right direction.”

V-CRED will begin as a two-year pilot program, serving 90 young people in foster care, 45 youth per year. The program has three core components: training for professional certification, paid internships and job placement. It is aligned with a career pathways model and provides developmentally appropriate career readiness planning designed to provide each person with a career and education plan, a resume, cover letter and a professional network that they work to develop.

Youth participating in the program will train for professional certification through courses offered by KCC; participate in paid internships/apprenticeships; and have opportunities for employment with the employer hosting the internship. V-CRED will focus on five career pathways: information technology; electrician’s helper; allied health (e.g. certified nursing assistants, EKG technician); pharmacy technicians; and building trades.

“It’s no secret that New York’s workforce is hungry for skilled workers,” said KCC President Dr. Claudia V. Schrader. “New York City employers in information technology, electrical works, allied health, pharmacy, and the building trades are looking to hire people with vocational training in these demanding areas. Kingsborough is proud to host the V-CRED program’s EMT and pharmacy tech components, joining fellow CUNY colleges that are hosting other components.

“Increasing the accessibility of these training programs is pivotal in this time where there is a growing demand for talent. It is important for us to work towards closing the opportunity gap in New York City, which we know requires us to truly prepare students for careers that can help them to become more self-sufficient,” said Dr. Simone Rodriguez, vice president of KCC’s workforce development and continuing education and strategic partnerships.

V-CRED is an example of the Mayor’s “upstream” solutions. “We spend too much time fixing broken promises instead of preventing those broken promises from taking place. We should not wait until our young people fall in the river and pull them out,” he stated. “Let’s go upstream and prevent them from falling in the first place.”

“Upstream also includes sticking with our young people,” added Jess Dannhauser, commissioner of NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services. “When we’re in a relationship with young people, we want to do right by them and make sure we don’t drop them at the most important parts of their life. Most of our kids in college are going to CUNY and thriving at CUNY because of all the programs they have to welcome them.”

CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez, who once held the equivalent position of ACS commissioner in Puerto Rico, noted: “There are no groups of youth in higher ed that have worse outcomes than foster youth. Kids in foster care have the most challenges in connecting with higher education, getting a career, getting a major, getting a profession, and getting a vocation. Programs like this go to break that cycle.”

“My primary goal is to become an FDNY paramedic, something I’ve wanted as a little girl,” shared program participant Antonette McKnight. Now 22, she entered the foster care system when she was about eight or nine. “With the help of the V-CRED program, I was able to move forward in achieving the goal and bettering my future. I was given the opportunity to experience life as an EMT by doing rounds in which we were able to help those who were in need. It’s an experience I’ll never forget. It made me more confident about my career choice. Because of this program, I am now a certified emergency medical technician and I can follow with the next steps and become a paramedic.

“Programs like V-CRED are important because we need programs that will help us succeed. We really need support,” said program participant Lola Ramaseur, who spent 11 years in the foster care system. She has already completed the EMT program and is now training as a pharmacy tech.  She said she loved the medical field and that taking part in the program was like watching a step of her dream unfold. “The program was extremely beneficial because I could go to school for free and have a guaranteed job at the end of it.”  She already has a number of job offers lined up.

Paid internships are being provided by private sector employers, including USIS, Health Max, Walgreens, and CVS, as well as by community-based agencies that will offer tangible job opportunities at the worksites where youth gain work experience and on-the-job training.

“One of the great things about the V-CRED program is the component that connects with paid internships and apprenticeships,” noted Rodríguez. That puts money in our students’ pockets, which they need for food insecurity and home insecurity and all the things we know prevent them from completing.  It connects them to the world of work. Studies show that students who participate in paid internships and apprenticeships graduate faster, and when they go into the workforce, they get a job quicker and have a first-time pay that’s higher.”

Youth in V-CRED will also benefit from services through the Fair Futures initiative, a coalition of child welfare agencies, non-profits, foundations, advocates and young adults who will provide dedicated coaches, tutors and education, employment and housing specialists. The students will also be able to enroll in a career readiness training through Hats and Ladders, an occupation education program designed to motivate and prepare young people for jobs.

To watch the press announcement in its entirety, visit https://youtu.be/4iVqWCbayI0.

Kingsborough Community College President Claudia Schrader, ACS Commissioner Jess Dannhauser, KCC V-CRED students Antonette McKnight and Lola Ramaseur, and CUNY Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez

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