Foundation Vocational Day Serves Foster Youth

On October 21, in collaboration with the Alliance for Children's Rights, which provides free legal services and advocacy to protect the rights of impoverished and abused children and youth, the Television Academy Foundation co-hosted a vocational day for 60 Los Angeles-based, foster youth college students interested in pursuing careers in the entertainment industry. The day included a networking and interviewing skills workshop, an above-the-line panel discussion featuring actor Benito Martinez (How to Get Away with Murder), writer Kevin Avery (The Jim Jefferies Show) and executive producer Michael Gilvary (Chicago Fire), as well as a below-the-line panel of professionals representing various industry crafts. The collaboration between the Television Academy Foundation and the Alliance for Children's Rights is supported by an endowment gift from Dick and Noelle Wolf and the Wolf Family Foundation.

Approximately 400,000 youth live in foster care nationwide. Young people enter foster care when the courts determine they need to be temporarily or permanently removed from their current living situation because of challenges at home. Each year, an estimated 26,000 young people "age out" of the U.S. foster care system. 25 states and the District of Columbia have extended foster care beyond age 18 to 19, 20 or 21 if the youth is enrolled in school, employed at least 80 hours per month, participating in a program that promotes employment or has a medical condition.