No young person should have to figure out adulthood alone.
The Hayes Youth Foundation walks beside young people ages 16 to 26 as they move from survival toward stability, belonging, and a future they can build themselves.
We do not rescue. We stay.
The gap we are built for
Most young adults
have someone to call.
Someone who explains how a lease works. Who notices when they go quiet. Who knows a hiring manager. Who has a couch after a breakup. Who tells them the truth and stays anyway.
Some young people have none of that.
What they are missing is not services. Services exist. It is continuity: an adult who knew what happened last month and will still be there next month.
We exist to help build that.
What we are building
Three things, launched together.
Each one fails alone. We have watched it happen.
A safe place to stand
The Marcos Fund and Doors of Hope open apartments through partnerships with multifamily owners.
The knowledge to move forward
Life Lab teaches what adulthood quietly assumes someone already taught you.
People who keep showing up
The Table brings young people and steady adults together over recurring meals.
Why Utah
Small enough
to actually solve.
In 2019, roughly 130 young people aged out of Utah's foster care system. That is about six percent of everyone who left care that year.
One hundred and thirty is a solvable number. And it counts only foster care. It leaves out everyone arriving from domestic violence, family breakdown, estrangement, or a home that stopped being safe.
A first cohort of fifteen is a meaningful share of the young adults leaving instability in this community every year, and it is small enough to do well.
We would rather prove this with fifteen than promise it to a thousand.
Already in place
Utah DCFS runs Transition to Adult Living services for youth 14 to 21, with aftercare through age 23.
TAL teaches life and job skills. It cannot conjure an apartment, or a table full of adults who keep showing up. That is the gap we are built for, and we intend to work alongside them rather than around them.
Three ways in
Build this with us.
Multifamily owners
Pledge a door
You already control the thing no grant can buy.
Donors
Be there on day one
We open in late 2026 and we will need funding on day one. Tell us now and we will come to you first.
Mentors
Take a seat
The Table needs adults willing to show up monthly, and to keep showing up.
Bill Hayes was not related to the child he raised.
He chose her anyway, and it changed the shape of her entire life. That is the whole thesis.