“I don’t care how long it took—this service was worth the wait. I’ll wait longer just to sign.”
Haven Services’ VITAVENGERS program is a youth financial education, workforce development, and tax preparation training program designed to empower underserved youth ages 16–24 with practical financial knowledge, professional skills, mentorship, and real-world experience.
Participants move from classroom learning into VITA training and supervised community service, building skills they can carry into college, employment, and future leadership opportunities.
VITAVENGERS is a youth financial education, workforce development, and tax preparation training program powered by Haven Services.
The program is designed to empower underserved youth ages 16–24 by combining financial education, mentorship, professional development, VITA training, and real-world community service.
You’ll begin by building skills you can use in your own life, including budgeting, saving, banking, credit, fraud prevention, and financial goal setting. From there, you’ll develop professional skills like communication, interviewing, teamwork, customer service, time management, confidentiality, and leadership.
Then, you’ll move into VITA tax training, where you’ll learn tax fundamentals, how to work with taxpayers, how to review documents, how tax software is used, and how to prepare for certification. After completing training, eligible participants transition into supervised service at Haven Services VITA sites during tax season.
The goal is not just to teach you about taxes. VITAVENGERS uses tax preparation as a real-world environment where you can practice responsibility, professionalism, communication, problem solving, and community leadership while building experience you can take with you into college, employment, and future opportunities.
VITAVENGERS is designed to give underserved youth more than just a class or volunteer opportunity. You’ll build practical skills, gain real experience, and leave the program with accomplishments you can use for school, work, and future opportunities.
Through VITAVENGERS, you can gain:
20 Hours — Program Graduation
30 Hours — $100 Stipend
40 Hours — $200 Stipend
50+ Hours — $300 Stipend
Stipends are tied to approved fieldwork hours (NOT training hours) and final program eligibility requirements. Additional requirements may include attendance, professionalism, graduation status, and quality expectations. Stipend is capped at $300.
VITAVENGERS is designed to be a hands-on program, so participants should be prepared to commit to both the training period and the tax-season field experience.
Training is expected to take place weekly from October 2026 through January 2027, with sessions focused on financial education, professional development, tax preparation, and VITA certification.
Prospective training dates include:
A winter break is planned from December 9, 2026 through January 4, 2027, although some self-paced VITA training may be assigned during this period.
Training is currently planned for Tuesdays, approximately 3:00–5:00 PM, with in-person sessions proposed at Mercado La Paloma. Final dates, times, and location will be confirmed with accepted participants.
After completing training, participants will move into supervised VITA service from approximately February 1 through April 30, 2027.
During this period, participants will gain real-world experience at participating Haven Services VITA sites. Fieldwork assignments may include taxpayer check-in, intake and interviewing, document review, tax preparation where eligible, customer service, tax software, and other site responsibilities.
Participants should be prepared to:
We understand that participants may also be balancing school, work, transportation, and family responsibilities. The application will ask about your availability and any barriers that could affect participation so the VITAVENGERS team can better understand your needs and plan appropriate support.
Final scheduling and participation requirements will be provided before the program begins or during orientation on October 13, 2026.
VITA stands for Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. It is a program that provides free tax preparation services to eligible individuals and families.
Through VITAVENGERS, participants learn how a VITA site works, including taxpayer intake, confidentiality, document review, tax preparation procedures, quality review, and professional communication. Participants then have the opportunity to apply those skills through supervised service at Haven Services VITA sites.
What makes VITA especially meaningful is the community impact behind the work. By helping people access free tax preparation, participants are supporting individuals and families who may otherwise face cost, language, or access barriers when filing their taxes. VITAVENGERS gives underserved youth the opportunity to build professional experience while also giving back to their community in a direct and practical way.
Yes. VITAVENGERS is designed to give participants experience they can carry into college, scholarship, internship, and job applications.
Through the program, you can build skills in communication, teamwork, customer service, professionalism, leadership, and financial education while completing supervised community service through Haven Services’ VITA program. Participants also leave with documented service hours and an updated resume. VITAVENGERS_Program_Proposal_20…
The experience goes beyond learning how to prepare taxes. It gives you a chance to show responsibility, problem-solving, community leadership, and a commitment to serving others — qualities you can highlight when describing your experience in applications, interviews, and future opportunities.
VITAVENGERS is designed for underserved youth ages 16–24. The program is primarily intended for high school juniors and seniors, college students, and young adults who are interested in building financial, professional, and leadership skills.
Participants will learn about budgeting, saving, banking, credit, fraud prevention, workplace communication, customer service, resume building, interviewing, teamwork, leadership, tax preparation, taxpayer communication, confidentiality, and VITA procedures.
The training portion of the 2026–2027 cohort is planned to run from October 2026 through January 2027. Participants then move into supervised VITA field experience from February through April 2027.
The current plan is for training to take place in person at Mercado La Paloma (3655 S. Grand Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90007).
Final training location and scheduling details will be confirmed with accepted participants.
Fieldwork locations vary throughout Los Angeles county and is up to participants which location best suits them.
Participants will receive VITA training and certification preparation. Required certification will depend on the role a participant is assigned during the tax-season field experience. But do not worry: we provide full certification support as part of the program.
Yes. The current stipend structure is based on approved fieldwork hours:
20 Hours — Program Graduation
30 Hours — $100 Stipend
40 Hours — $200 Stipend
50+ Hours — $300 Stipend
Stipends are subject to final eligibility requirements, which may include attendance, professionalism, graduation status, and quality expectations. Stipends are currently capped at $300. Fieldwork hours DOES NOT include training hours or time spent in workshops.
Kemverly L.
Los Angeles
“I don’t care how long it took—this service was worth the wait. I’ll wait longer just to sign.”
Bernadette B.
Los Angeles
“Take all the pictures you need, I’m thankful for [the File4Free Program] today for this reimbursement. Take a 100 if you want, I owe you.”
Irma A.
Los Angeles
“I’m thankful that there are free services like this to use. I didn’t know they existed”