The YouthBank Model
YouthBank is a small business incubator connecting street youth (aged 18-28) with the skills, mentors, and resources they need to launch their own businesses and pull themselves out of poverty.
At the heart of YouthBank is a unique business model that delivers impact in two phases:
- A fellowship phase in which YouthBank Fellows (former street youth) learn business skills on the job as employees in a community business, and
- An entrepreneurship phase in which high-performing Fellows pitch their own business ideas and receive asset-equivalent microfinance loans and mentorship
Once their loans are repaid, YouthBank Fellows become independent business owners -- and local employers.
Unlike job training programs that prepare youth for employment, YouthBank prepares its Fellows for entrepreneurship.
Unlike most nonprofits, each YouthBank Center generates its own revenue through a core business, which both offsets operating costs and serves as a living business school classroom for the Fellows.
Throughout, it emphasizes community responsibility: Fellows hold community events to share what they learn, and they commit to hiring and training other street youth as a condition of receiving a loan.
