La La Land Cafe is a bustling local coffee shop. Its inception stems from a meeting years ago at CASA Dallas, where young adults described aging out of foster care. Afterward, Francois Reihani was determined to do something to a system awash with problems.
, 62.6% of students in foster care graduate from high school, compared to 90% of all other students.
According to the state's Family and Protective Services database, the average yearly salary in Dallas County for CPS caseworkers is just over $53,000. In 2021, the turnover rate for CPS investigations workers was a stunning 41%, up from 27% in 2020. “One very common challenge for youths who aged out of foster care face involves their identification documents,” Worthington says. “Texas law requires that all youths aging out of care have their birth certificate, Social Security card and Texas ID or driver’s license, but many either don’t have these documents when they exit care or they lose them and have massive difficulties replacing them. Without ID, they are unable to access safe and stable employment.
Jesberger, the CASA advocate who invited Reihani to that initial meeting, says they’re also learning important lessons that they may not have learned at home. Over several years the operation has gone through many tweaks. Now there's an eight-week program designed to train just two former foster youths at a time.
Kathleen LaValle, the president and CEO of Dallas CASA, says programs like La La Land are vital for young adults aged out of the system because the programs provide not just employment, but guidance and structure. Part of the mentorship includes weekly check-ins with directors and help with budgeting.
Now he goes to school, studying for a theater arts degree while working at La La Land. His immediate goal is to transfer out of community college to a four-year school. In Dallas, Randle, who works at the Oak Lawn location, says Reihani is like a brother to her now — tough love and all. For Reihani, a primary goal in all of this is to create a playbook for other businesses to use to provide a business structure everyone can use.
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