Helping youth from foster care discover direction, confidence, and career pathways with YouScience

Every young person deserves the opportunity to understand their strengths, explore meaningful career pathways, and build a future with confidence. For youth in the foster care system, that journey can often be more complex, with fewer consistent support systems, limited exposure to career options, and uncertainty about what comes next after aging out of care.

Across the country, organizations are working to change that narrative by helping these youth uncover their aptitudes, interests, and potential earlier, giving them clearer direction and stronger support systems as they plan for life beyond care.

Two organizations leading that effort are the Enay Foundation in Georgia and C-LOR in San Diego, California. Both are using YouScience® Aptitude & Career Discovery as a foundational component of their youth guidance and support programs to help youth better understand themselves and connect to future opportunities.

Helping youth see a future for themselves

In Georgia, the Enay Foundation is using YouScience to help youth discover clearer pathways forward.

The nonprofit works to cultivate long-term support and positive life outcomes for youth experiencing foster care throughout the state. As part of that mission, the organization has integrated YouScience into its foster care group home support efforts to help youth better understand their strengths and career possibilities.

The organization is currently piloting its Foster Youth Workforce Pathway Pilot, a scalable model designed to help youth in care move from career discovery to education, training, and employment planning. The model combines YouScience aptitude discovery with individualized coaching, caregiver alignment, education and career pathway planning, and workforce exposure opportunities designed to help youth build continuity and confidence for the future.

The Enay Foundation’s innovative implementation approach has also gained broader national recognition. The organization was recently awarded $50,000 through the inaugural National Foster Care Innovation Challenge led by Flourish Fund in collaboration with Eagle Venture Fund and supported by Google.org and the Aviv Foundation. Following a competitive review of 110 applicants nationwide, The Enay Foundation was selected for its Foster Youth Workforce Pathway Pilot, which partners with YouScience to use aptitude-based career discovery and individualized pathway planning to help foster youth transition from career exploration to education, training, and employment opportunities.

“This pilot will help young people in care move from career discovery to tailored education, training, and employment pathways. Most importantly, it offers many teens their first clear view of themselves through the lens of capability, alignment, and future potential in high-demand careers that can help break the foster care cycle.”

—Elton Dixon, Co-Founder of the Enay Foundation.

Unlike many traditional support models, the program is designed to create continuity for youth even when placements, schools, or support systems change. Because YouScience is already available statewide through Georgia’s education system, participating youth can retain access to their aptitude results, career matches, and planning foundation throughout transitions that often disrupt long-term progress for youth in care.

Using aptitude discovery to create personalized pathways

Rather than asking students what they think they want to do before they have had enough exposure to answer confidently, Aptitude & Career Discovery helps youth uncover their natural aptitudes through a series of performance-based “brain games.” Those results are then paired with career exploration tools, interests, and planning resources to help students identify pathways aligned to how they are naturally wired to succeed.

For organizations serving foster youth, that insight can be transformative.

C-LOR, a San Diego-based nonprofit organization focused on creating life opportunity resources with a national outreach, uses YouScience as a central part of its advising and guidance model. After completing the assessment, youth learn about their aptitudes, interests, and career matches before being connected to services and support aligned to their goals.

The organization recently participated in the Igniting HOPE, Building CommUNITY Family & Friends Festival hosted by Just in Time for Foster Youth during Foster Care Awareness Month in San Diego. The event brought together nonprofits, community organizations, and foster youth support advocates focused on helping transition-age youth build brighter futures.

Through the event, C-LOR connected with several organizations interested in implementing similar approaches, including Voices for CASA Children, Promises2Kids, the San Diego Center for Children/San Pasqual Academy, and Kitchens for Good. The organization is also exploring opportunities to expand support into new communities, including survivors of sex trafficking, with several organizations expressing interest in the model.

“Youth in foster care often have incredible potential but limited opportunities to discover how their strengths connect to real futures. With its online accessibility, C-LOR is able to provide their Career Pathway Navigation services to a national audience. YouScience Aptitude & Career Discovery results form the basis for discovering career opportunities aligned to one’s personal aptitudes and talents. C-LOR Navigators then use this data to explore innovative options to attain career placement for those with potentially limited means.”

—Megan Bryan, President of C-LOR

Creating connection, direction, and opportunity

For many foster youth, the challenge is not a lack of potential. It is a lack of exposure, guidance, and connection to opportunities that align with their strengths.

That is why organizations like C-LOR and the Enay Foundation matter.

By helping youth understand their aptitudes earlier and connecting them with personalized planning, mentorship, education, and workforce pathways, these organizations are helping young people move from uncertainty to direction and from survival to possibility.

During Foster Care Awareness Month, their work serves as an important reminder that career readiness is deeply connected to belonging, confidence, and access to opportunity. When young people can see their aptitudes clearly and understand where those aptitudes can lead, they are better equipped to build meaningful futures for themselves.

And for foster youth navigating already difficult circumstances, that sense of direction can change everything.