The BOOM’s Post [Video]

The award-winning BOOM apprenticeship was founded as a violence-prevention, economic opportunity project for teens in-crisis. The BOOM is a life-affirming, skill-building project.  Disconnected youths in struggling communities are gripped by a sense of economic hopelessness [6]. For many, college isn't a realistic option. Yet, alternative, non-college career paths are available. Skilled workers are in high demand in industry and the trades [7]. Entrepreneurship is a proven alternative to a college degree [8]. The BOOM Theory of Change integrates multiple, evidence-based best practices: - a culturally relevant, youth-friendly format [1] - community cohesion [2] - mentoring [3] - competence [4] - economic opportunity [5] - mindfulness [9] Our seed event was an art-bike parade, to celebrate neighborhood achievement and craft. During our subsequent three-year pilot, John Weiss and some awesome volunteer instructors conducted hands-on workshops, guiding about 40 teens to solder amplifier circuit boards and assemble loudspeakers, and build and repair bicycles and minibikes. The workshops were wildly popular. The BOOM's aim is to prepare our apprentices to build and market their own hardware inventions. So, we will give our apprentices the experience of building and selling real-world electronic hardware consumer product. The product we're developing is a boombox. The Bay Area is the BOOM's birthplace. Ultimately, we want to bring our mentoring to disadvantaged youths across America and around the world. Please like, follow, subscribe, donate, volunteer, and invite your friends and colleagues. Thank you! Volunteer: https://boo.ma/volunteer News: https://lnkd.in/dJErb9MR Contact: https://lnkd.in/dhV9Bv-Q Donate: https://boo.ma/donate References: https://lnkd.in/gCzDbTWs