Business Training for At-Risk Youth - Youth Entrepreneurship Academy Demonstration Projectin Watts Willowbrook, Los Angeles California

The OJJDP FY 10 Earmarks Program furthers the Department's mission by providing grants, cooperative agreements, and other assistance authorized by the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, as amended, to organizations identified in the Conference Report to accompany the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010 (P.L. 111-117), H.R. Conf. Rep. No. 111-366 at 702-714.

Long Beach Community College District (LBCCD) proposes to deliver a demonstration project focused on providing entrepreneur business training to the most at-risk youth (14-18 years old) in the South Los Angeles communities of Watts, Willowbrook and Compton, who face serious economic and social problems. The Youth Entrepreneurship Academy (YEA) program will be delivered in partnership with the Watts Willowbrook Boys and Girls Club (WWBGC) and the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) at El Camino College, and will consist of a 12 week Youth Entrepreneurship Academy program focused on personal and leadership development, basic business acumen, youth mentoring, parental involvement, program graduation, and practical application of an entrepreneurial business operation upon completion of the program.

The goal of the YEA program is to provide opportunities for at-risk youth to learn about career pathways, understand their strengths and abilities, increase self-confidence and sufficiency, learn team building skills, and expose youth to a larger world of opportunities to encourage them to be contributing members of their communities. Also included in the program design are orientation sessions for parents to educate and facilitate their understanding of the process and to engage them in supporting their child's participation. Participants and their parents will be surveyed prior to the program to establish benchmarks for measurement of outcomes at the conclusion of the program. Surveys will also be conducted throughout the program to measure learning concepts, attitudes, ability of youth to set goals, improved school attendance and completion rates. Other program measures will include Business Training for At Risk Youth (Youth Entrepreneurship Academy), participation and completion rates for course work and the program, and how participants apply their learned knowledge to the operation of a business enterprise at the Boys and Girls Club. NCA/NCF