Creating A Countywide Infrastructure That Helps Low-Income and Disconnected Young Adults Transition from Public Assistance to Education, Employment, and Lifelong Economic Independence.

Between 2022 and 2025, Los Angeles County successfully demonstrated a promising solution through Supervisor Hilda L. Solis' Guaranteed Income Pilot Program. The Guaranteed Income Pilot enrolled 300 participants countywide. Educate California was contracted to serve all 300 participants.

Although participation in the coaching and educational support services was optional, 110 young adults chose to actively participate in ongoing coaching, monthly workshops, resource navigation, and individualized success planning. The program produced numerous successes, with many youth completing their diplomas, enrolling in community college, obtaining certificates in IT, applying for apprenticeships, and securing employment.

The Opportunity Youth Success Initiative (OYSI) transforms this proven and successful coaching model into a Countywide Opportunity Youth Infrastructure capable of supporting thousands of disconnected young adults.

Educate California's LifePrep Academy platform serves as the digital foundation of this infrastructure, providing individualized planning, communication, referrals, progress monitoring, and outcome measurement while allowing coaches to focus their time on building relationships and helping participants achieve meaningful educational and career goals.

The Opportunity Youth Success Initiative is not another youth program — it is a countywide infrastructure that strengthens the effectiveness of existing investments. OYSI is not designed to keep young adults connected to public benefits — it is designed to help them successfully transition beyond them.

Each disconnected young adult costs California taxpayers an estimated $19,400 annually through increased public expenditures and reduced economic productivity. Preventing even a small number of youth from becoming or remaining disconnected can generate significant economic returns for local communities.

By providing coordinated coaching, education, workforce preparation, and participant engagement through a shared Infrastructure, OYSI transforms public assistance into a pathway toward self-sufficiency, ensuring that today's investment in opportunity youth becomes tomorrow's investment in a stronger workforce and a more prosperous Los Angeles County.