While it is a little early to say the dream has come true, certainly star dust has been sprinkled for foster youth at the Dream Center & Coffee House at 1212 18th Street in Bakersfield. It opened recently to help foster youth and former foster youth transition to adulthood when government support ends at age 18. Kern County is home to 2,400 foster youth and each year about 200 are "emancipated" (reach age 18). Collaboration is making the coffee shop a quick favorite among local downtown customers. The Kern County Network for Children (KCNC), which administers the Foster Youth Services program, has a ready base of job seekers to work behind the counter. Dagny's Coffee Shop owner Mike Walters operates the shop and his reputation for serving a quality product is well known. "Dagny's has made a commitment to train and employ a certain percentage of emancipated foster youth," said KCNC Director Tom Corson, whose office is right next door. "Other employers in the private sector are seeing the advantages of hiring foster youth and have stepped forward, too, creating flexible work hours so they can attend school." Being able to work and attend school is important to this segment of the county's population. Historically, 54 percent do not finish high school and only three percent attend college. According to Corson, about 20 percent each year become homeless and 60 percent of the females become pregnant before age 20. To quote Corson, "Their life is not easy." More