TeenForce Receives $50K from Valley Foundation

TeenForce, a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing teen employment, announced this week that it's received $50,000 from The Valley Foundation, one of Silicon Valley's leading providers of grants for qualified nonprofit organizations.

The Valley Foundation awarded the money to Los Gatos-based TeenForce to support an innovative program to employ foster teens at healthcare-related businesses in town and surrounding area.

The grant will allow TeenForce to strengthen its staffing and training infrastructure to prepare foster youth to land and succeed in their first jobs, said Los Gatos resident John Hogan, 49, founder and executive director of TeenForce. 

TeenForce was started in April of 2010 and it was initially funded by Hogan who then reached out to friends and associates who contributed and have now received The Valley Foundation grant, Hogan said.

"The Valley Foundation is pleased to support TeenForce's innovative program to provide job opportunities for teens in foster care," said Phil Boyce, chairman of the Valley Foundation. "TeenForce is a terrific example of a market-based approach to creating opportunity for both teens and local organizations dedicated to the health and well-being of Santa Clara County residents."

TeenForce works with teens and young adults ages 13 to 20 to provide comprehensive work readiness training, skills development and job placement services, Hogan said.

"Money itself is important but it's also important as a third-party endorsement ... an outside agency looks at what we're doing and confirms that it thinks it's a good idea for us to help kids in foster care get work experience," Hogan said about the grant.

"Early job experience is one of the best ways to help teens and young adults break the barrier to employment ... Kids that don't have a regular parental system often don't have the same advantages in trying to find a job that other kids have." 

TeenForce has partnered with 27 companies to provide job opportunities to 69 teens who were paid for 7,457 hours of work in the past year, Hogan said.

The Valley Foundation grant advances TeenForce's goal of becoming self-sustaining by serving a growing number of businesses and young jobseekers, Hogan noted.

Hogan said his agency works with any teen to help them find employment, but The Valley Foundation grant is specifically for helping youth in foster care.

So far, the organization has also placed five youth in foster care in jobs, he said. "It started in Los Gatos, but now we're reaching out to most of the youth in foster care from the East side of San Jose ... We definitely started here, but now we're expanding."