Youth

Youth

The Black Economic Summit Trust (B.E.S.T.) is looking for 20 dedicated black students entering 8th grade in the fall of 2024 to participate in our Empowering Youth Economics (EYE) Program's - EYE on the Future Project, a financial literacy education and career-oriented mentorship program that will guide them through their high school graduation.

The program will include:


  • Financial Literacy Training
  • College/Career Planning
  • College Scholarships
  • Internships/Apprenticeships/Mentorships
  • More!


This program will be free to student participants but requires a firm commitment from the parents and youth. Program kick-off will be at the B.E.S.T. Success Summit on June 9th.


The purpose of EYE is to be a beacon for young entrepreneurial prowess and a powerful resource to foster fundamental fiscal intelligence.

Apply Here

EYE is to be a beacon

To address the increase of youth poverty in Denver Metro’s black community, Black Economic Success Trust (BEST) has responded with Empowering Youth Economics (EYE). There is no absence of longitudinal studies confirming the immense disparities across sectors (education, health, economics, etc.) for black youth, specifically in Colorado. In order to combat the traditional, structural factors that negatively affect outcomes for BIPOC youth, it is necessary to instill fundamental critical thinking and financial literacy skills as early as possible. Our youth are tomorrow’s societal leaders who are heavily depended upon to propel Colorado into the future. By intervening as early as junior high, EYE supports youth through high school. The B.E.S.T. program partners youth with mentorship and channels resources directly into their lives to help them strive toward a more equitable existence into adulthood.

By removing barriers, both traditional and non, to gaining culturally-resonant financial literacy, BEST redirects potential outcomes to prevent the reverberating adulthood effects of youth poverty and the impact on BIPOC communities. Survivors of systemic -isms are overwhelmingly invigorated to reinvest in their own communities. In this way, BEST’s Empowering Youth Economics is transformational. By guiding the cycle of poverty in BIPOC communities up into a spiral of enlightenment and promise where ‘Each one, teach one’ becomes a guiding principle.

 

By removing the financial barriers to accessing critical literacy, EYE is living out the mission to dismantle embedded institutional -isms. Not only do we offer free laptops to open access but guided mentorship is a key component of this 2028 Project.

 

Our in-person and virtual, culturally-responsive, financial literacy cohort is made accessible not only through technology stipends and also by leveraging the Affordable Connectivity Program that in many cases offers free wi-fi to our participants.

 

Your support will help us pilot our EYE program this Fall in Denver where it all begins.

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