Recently, Julie Nessen, Co-Founder of the Young Entrepreneurs Alliance (YEA) spoke to TiE’s Social Enterprise SIG about YEA’s business ownership program.  Deepika Nath and Julie Nessen describe this unique social enterprise.

What is YEA’s mission?
YEA is driven by a singular premise: that the hands-on experience of owning and running their own business will unlock the talents of teens from all walks of life.  Using entrepreneurship and business ownership as the vehicle, YEA helps teens, ages eleven to twenty-two, learn critical work-related skills, develop a sense of self-confidence and move toward economic self-sufficiency.

Who Does YEA Serve?  
YEA currently works in partnership with Boston-area vocational high schools, where the student businesses are based.  These schools serve teens who are at high-risk for behaviors such as dropping out of school, becoming criminally involved, having children without the means to support them, and cornering themselves into lives of poverty. Many of our teens are immigrants or the children of immigrants and are learning how to adapt to a new culture.  In our partnerships with the vocational high schools, it is YEA’s role to build businesses within specific school departments. YEA partners with teachers, who serve as content experts and business supervisors.  Our staff’s role is to work with their students and teach the complex business skills they need to build and run the businesses as part of the high school degree program. YEA provides the curriculum, as well as teacher training and ongoing consultation and support. Schools provide the physical space, expert teachers, student academic and social support, and basic administrative assistance. Together, YEA and the school leverage resources, creating a low-cost, high-impact entrepreneurial experience for their teens.

How is YEA different from other teen entrepreneurship programs?

While many teen business and entrepreneurship programs focus on job training, YEA is an ownership-training program.  In the YEA Business Model, the teens work together as business partners, not in a cottage industry, but in an economically viable business.  These businesses serve both the B2B and individual markets.  In their YEA businesses, the teens have all the responsibilities of running their enterprise.  They are the directors and officers and, like most small business owners, they earn money by profit-sharing.  The teens also share the daily responsibilities including financial management, marketing, inventory control, equipment maintenance, project management, customer service and human resources.  Their key learning stems from their experience as the owners of a legitimate, viable enterprise, and provides them with a new perspective of empowerment and limitless opportunities.

What are YEA’s Results?
Our results show that teens who once believed they were headed into unskilled, dead-end jobs now move on to college or into upwardly mobile jobs.  At the same time, schools and teachers are revitalized.  Over 90% of YEA participants have successfully completed high school and over 80% have gone on to college - a rate four times that of their peers! Several YEA alumni are developing successful careers, and a growing number come back as mentors and consultants to current YEA student businesses.

YEA’s Invitation  to the Indian Community:  
As YEA grows we are looking for board members from the business community who are committed to youth education and entrepreneurship. We want to engage industry leaders to take an active role in our programs by sponsoring our businesses, and by providing mentors who can help our student businesses grow their footprints, get new customers and learn new skills. We are also looking to the community to sponsor our initiatives through ongoing financial commitments.  

Many members of the Indian community embody the spirit of entrepreneurship that we are cultivating in our students. You are powerful role models and can speak to the challenges of being an entrepreneur in a culture that might be different from the one your parents were raised in - a culture that has required you to make many adaptations. Experience is the most powerful teacher and we call on you to provide our students with the benefits of your experience.  With your support, they can learn how to become financially self-sufficient, confident contributors and our next generation of business leaders.

For more information on YEA, and how you and your business can parnter with us, please contact us at: and our website at:   www.YEAworks.org

|