Kaimore, a nonprofit founded in 2020 to dismantle generational poverty, has revamped its outreach program, tripling the program’s length to provide a more holistic approach to career readiness.

Spanning nine months, the Market Ready program will begin with life coaching, digging into a participant’s background and mental health, alongside a financial literacy masterclass. From there, participants receive career coaching and lessons in job readiness, before eventually gaining real world business experience.

With a background in finance and entrepreneurship, Executive Director Joyce Lam started Kaimore – which is based in the City of Industry – with a drive to invest in L.A.’s next generation, particularly those who are systems impacted such as youth in foster care or with criminal records.

“I wanted to take my skills and put them where I felt they would be the most impactful: helping at-risk youth to develop their financial literacy skills and find their passion in life,” Lam said. “Obviously they’re not always going to have a clear idea of what they want to be doing, but we want to give them a template of how to figure that out as they go on in life. So that could be (asking), what skills are they good at? What are they passionate about? What do they see in the world that they can add value to?”

In the last three months of the Market Ready program, participants have the opportunity to take what they have learned and operate a farmers market booth, a line of business that was intentional for Kaimore.

While many entrepreneurial programs favor applicants who already have established ideas for businesses and whose concepts cater more to tech driven or cutting-edge spaces, Lam finds value in teaching young people about operating a traditional, small business.

“There’s a lot of these small entrepreneurs that don’t get the help that they need because they’re deemed not innovative enough,” Lam said.

Through funding from partners such as the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Conrad Hilton Foundation, the program, valued at $15,500 per participant, is completely free. Kaimore also takes care of all the costs associated with the farmers market allowing participants to take home all proceeds.

At the end of Market Ready, participants can join Kaimore’s business accelerator program to work with Kaimore staff on developing their own business plan and putting it into action. For those who are more interested in a traditional career path, the nonprofit will assist in resume building, interview preparation and scouting job opportunities.

Another change in the program this year is the participant pool. Previously participants came from referrals from transitional housing facilities, social service departments and other partners but this year the application is open to any at-risk Angelenos ages 16 to 24.

When serving this demographic, Lam said confidence building is especially important in addition to the skills taught in the program to instill a sense of capability and self-empowerment in those who may not have a support system.

“They’re really young but when I talk to them, it feels like they’ve lived a whole lifetime,” Lam said. “They’ve gone through trauma, they’ve gone through abuse, they’ve gone through death… I’m always in awe that they’ve been through so much and they’re still willing to come out, to invest time, to do this program. They still want to learn after everything.”