Youth Entrepreneurship Center Thrives

A Metanoia student works on Jewelry for the Isoke Sisters Jewelry Business.  Young women make jewelry once a month and sell at various venues around the tri county area.

Students open Individual Development Accounts with First Citizens Bank.  IDA accounts allow students to save money for College and Metanoia matches every $1 they save with an additional $2 as long as they withdraw after graduation to further their education or begin a small business.

    Beginning in 2008 students in Metanoia's middle school program, the Civic Leaders Program, started studying about creating a small business with the goal of putting a business plan together and raising the capital for the plan in order to put it into effect.  This is the result of Metanoia revamping its middle school program to help students learn entrepreneurship, financial literacy and character building skills.   The students now occupy new space at St. Matthew Baptist church and each day the seventeen students in the program spend their afternoon studying such important phrases as "supply and demand,"  "SWOT Analysis," and "command economy." 

   The program is headed by Stacy Brown and David Hutchinson. We are partnering with YES Carolina (Youth Entrepreneurship Services) to host a BIZ Camp for students in the summer of 2009.  Students will receive training in the  nationally recognized Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) curriculum.  The weeklong training gives students many of the tools they will use to start a small business in a way that is fun and interactive.

  By developing the Youth Entrepreneurship Incubator we are hoping to invest in a number of neighborhood assets.  We will be teaching students positive ways to generate income for themselves and our community.  The students and their families will both benefit as they learn the practical steps to starting a business and see that business grow to earn income.

    This is just one small way that Metanoia seeks to both grow youth leaders and generate economic development in our community.  Stay tuned this spring for opportunities to support this program by becoming a consumer of the products they will produce.

Check out the updates blogs for both Isoke Sisters Jewelry and Hodari Brothers Screen Printing Co.

                          Hodari Brothers:         http://www.hodaribrothers.blogspot.com/

                           Isoke Sisters:             http://isokesistersjewelry.blogspot.com/

			Generating Economic Development