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The theme of the summer program was "Changing a Reputation."The 10 weeks of the program enabled our youth to express their vision, voice and appreciation of of the work that a few people in DC are doing to make a difference. Whether that difference is from nonprofits that spend tireless hours and limited dollars to neighborhood development that has completely changed a population's quality of life, the participants presented their interpretation of a District of Columbia that either has provided a safe haven for them to interact or the challenges of survival within their neighborhoods. Our Biz Camp provided an opportunity for our Young Urban Entrepreneurs program to give 7 more potential youth entrepreneurs the opportunity to begin to lay out the foundation for their potential business ideas. This program was in collaboration with the DC Department of Small and Local Business' (DSLBD) Enhanced Business Information Center to show youth the essential components of starting and operating their own business. The program offered youth the opportunity to hear from a variety of local business owners, venture capitals and DSLBD volunteers. The students competed in a business pitch competition and a business plan competition for monetary and a laptop computer prize incentive provided by DSLBD and Technology Playground supporters. The youth today are scorned, chastised and given nagative press abput the things that they don't seem to do correctly and are not publicly praised for their efforts to make an impact upon the cuty they live in. Too many times, the talents of our youth are overshadowed by the violence that is created by those that find it more beneficial to tear down and deface the beaty of this city, while allowing others to put general labels on th youth. Now is the time for those with the ability to change the reputation of our young people to stand up proud and make some noise. |
The summer enrichment program for 2009 ended with better anticipation than expected. The summer began hosing 60 youth from Department of Employment Services in three different programs. "Steps To Success" provided the career exploration in Photography, "Virtual Trails" took youth on a journey to explore changes within our DC neighborhoods and our Biz Camp/E-Club worked with new youth entrepreneurs to write their business plans and build their businesses info-structure.