Peace 4 Kids • Los Angeles, California
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Imagine you are a young adult of 18 and have spent five or more years in the foster care system. You have lived in many different homes — some nurturing, some at best custodial — and you are on the brink of “aging out.” This means that you are at the end of a journey through a patchwork system of foster parents, homes, and agencies, and are now set to venture into the community as an emancipated young adult. Life skills — such as budgeting, health education, job readiness, how to find proper housing — have not always been taught. How will you make it?

The Peace4Kids Teen Skills Program fills the gaps left by a lack of nurture by providing guidance and empowering support for 150 young people, ages 14–19, in South Los Angeles. A community- based organization with a holistic approach, Peace4Kids supports children and youth in foster care by offering skills-based workshops for personal development. More important, they give siblings in different foster care settings the chance to meet and sustain one another through recreation and learning opportunities.

But there’s more. Zaid Gayle and Marni Otway, the co-founders of Peace4Kids, are recognized leaders in policy initiatives that seek to improve California’s foster care system, one of the largest in the country, servicing more than 120,000 children. Their insight and leadership have been essential to driving California Youth Connections, a state-wide coalition that recently celebrated the first major overhaul of the state’s foster care system in decades.