Teen Leadership Foundation

The mission of the Teen Leadership Foundation (TLF) is to empower foster youth to becomebetter leaders in their own lives and in their communities. The organization is based on thebelief that, despite facing great odds, teens and young adults in foster care can succeedwhen they are paired with caring, supportive adults and provided training in relevant life.

Based in Costa Mesa, the Teen Leadership Foundation (TLF) was founded in 2007 in Orange County by CEO Lisa Castetter, who learned of the dire challenges faced by foster youth when she volunteered at summer camps for teens in foster care. Compelled to bring impactful leadership and mentor programs to a greater number of these vulnerable teens, Lisa left her career as an apparel industry executive to launch TLF.

For nearly 20 years, TLF has served foster teens and young adults in Southern California through programs ranging from camps to mentoring to life skills to transitional housing with wraparound services. TLF has built a network of partners locally and nationally, and it has earned a positive reputation among local county agencies, who routinely turn to TLF programs for their foster youth.

The vision of the Teen Leadership Foundation is to:

• Prepare transitional-age foster youth for fulfilling futures through individualized life skill workshops, mentor relationships, leadership development, and housing stability resources.

• Enhance the level of foster care services within California and across the nation.

• Remove barriers and build collaboration between the faith, government, civic, and corporate arenas to foster youth.

Recent Accomplishments:
1. Having launched our Life Skills Workshops into the community with local colleges serving foster youth, we will be serving 10 colleges for the 2026-27, reaching approximately 350 students. This puts us three years ahead of our anticipated roll-out pace.
2. In support of our re-energized mentoring/advocate program, we launched a new podcast that will provide training for our advocates, along with ongoing education for those serving transitional age foster youth.
3. We updated our mentoring program to the broader Advocate Program to reflect the expanded role of volunteers in supporting transition-age foster youth.

Upcoming Goals:
1. Prepare additional transition-age foster youth for success by expanding the Life Skills Workshops to new campuses .
2. Provide personalized support to transition-age foster youth through the updated Advocate Program.
3. Launch the process to replicate the Life Skills Workshops on a digital platform that can be accessed by schools and organizations outside Orange County who want to support transition-age foster youth.

1. Scholarship funds for the students and other transition-age foster youth needing a hand-up for needs like rent shortfall, diapers and other infant care, car repair, a computer for school, or uniforms for vocational training.

$20,000.

2. Prorated salary of program director’s time focused on the recruitment and training of adult volunteers for roles as Life Skills Workshop facilitators or student advocates.

S45,000

3. Salary of new part-time coordinator focused solely on the Life Skills Workshops to serve as a liaison with schools and youth.

$55,000

4. Initiate development of a platform to house the Life Skills Workshops curriculum translated into video, along with downloadable curriculum materials. These tools will be available to empower schools or other community organizations outside Orange County with a turn-key way to serve transition-age foster youth in their respective areas.

$500,000 (project manager, web designer, videographer, marketing materials, Spanish translation.)

Orange County is our primary service area, though our programs also extend to Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. Using training modules developed by the Teen Leadership Foundation, our different foster youth programs have been replicated and adapted in 11 states.