City Launches Job Training, Internship Program For Foster Kids

NEW YORK, NY — Nearly 100 foster children will get help launching their careers with city-funded job training and internships over the next two years, Mayor Eric Adams announced.

A new program known as V-CRED — which the city hopes to expand after a two-year pilot — will offer job training, certification courses and internship or apprenticeship opportunities to 90 young New Yorkers in foster care, the mayor announced Tuesday.

The program, funded by the city and the Kellog Foundation, will aim to support a population Adams said is often left behind. Foster youth are more likely to be unemployed, fall victim to a crime or come in contact with the justice system, Adams said.

“If we don’t educate, we incarcerate, which is why one of my most important jobs is advocating for our youth who have been in foster care or had contact with the juvenile justice system,” the mayor said. “This new V-CRED vocational training and apprenticeship program is going to help our young people prepare for good jobs and a bright future ... We are not going to just let them wing it, we are going to take them under our wing.”

The V-CRED program will focus on helping those between 16 and 24 years old find jobs in information technology, allied health, building trades or as electrician helpers or pharmacy technicians, according to the city.

It will include training at Common Point in Queens, Metro Placements in Manhattan or Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn before the youth are set up with internships or apprenticeships with private companies like USIS, Health Max, Walgreens, CVS, according to the city.

The program will also make sure the young New Yorkers have dedicated coaches, tutors and other support through the Fair Futures initiative, which the mayor has sought to fund under the city budget.

Find out more about the program here.