Branding While Broke presents BRANDNEW YOUth, A Brand Development Program for Male Teens of Color.

College completion

College matriculation rates

District-wide graduation rates

Student education pipeline

Youth unemployment and underemployment

City of Los Angeles

LAUSD

n/a

BRANDNEW YOUTH is a 6-week brand development program for male teens of color. In response to high levels of consumer marketing towards this specific demographic, Brandnew Youth will empower students to develop a healthy and sustainable relationship with brands, by teaching them how to create their own personal brand. The program will be concentrated on students from low income, high consumer communities within South Central Los Angeles and will be limited to 10 participants per cycle. Over the course of 6 weeks, students will identify and incubate their brands in a WeWork office space. The shared office space model of WeWork will provide students with direct access to a community of founders and exposure to various business fields. The course schedule is as follows:

Week 1|Intro to Branding/Mindset: Students will initiate the program with a video interview, which will include a test of their understanding of consumer brands. The BRANDNEW journey will then begin through case studies of popular local and international brands in order to provide students with a general understanding of the role of branding in the marketplace.

Week 2|Defining Your Brand: During this week students will learn more about developing and identifying their personal brand. Each student will be given a Strengths Finder book to do a personal strengths test assessment. Students will also review existing influencer brands and why they are successful.

Week 3|Visual Brand: We will review the importance of visual branding by looking at sample websites for companies, individuals and social media pages. Students will participate in a professional photoshoot to use for their personal brand portfolio. Additionally they will learn how to design and build a responsive website landing page.

Week 4|Utilizing Resources: Students will begin to build a network list and create a digital resume by identifying their skills/talents, past jobs/internships and programs or extracurricular activities that they have participated in. Through the development of this network list, students will be able identify accessible resources to support the development of their product or business idea.

Week 5|Power of Partnerships: Students will be taught the importance of establishing healthy relationships with friends, family and community members. They will review existing brand partnerships and identify ways to find partners within their communities. They will be asked to do an assessment of their circle of friends and how the circle supports their personal brand and vice versa.

Week 6|Launching: Students will develop a pitch deck and present both their personal and business/product brand to their peers and a community of entrepreneurs. A panel of experts will be in attendance to give feedback to students. Students will participate in a video exit interview about their brand, the impact of the course and the application of the course to their future endeavors.

We will measure the success of the program by looking at the following:

Overall understanding of brands and their role in the consumer marketplace: We will compare the student's entry video with their exit videos. Observing any changes in their perspectives, attitude, understanding of brands and awareness of self.

Market Development: Based on internal and external feedback, we will evaluate students’ growth in brand design and development through the strength of their website landing page.

Adult participation: Engagement with adult entrepreneurs and founders is a fundamental part of the program. Strong participation rates as well as feedback from adult participants will allow us to measure the strength of program.

Apprenticeships: The program will enable students to identify unique internship and apprenticeship opportunities as the students will have exclusive access to the business community within the WeWork environment. Students will be encouraged to be proactive in seeking opportunities and career placements will be tracked for 2 years following the student’s participation in the program.

Graduation: Students will be asked to submit their graduation status post completion of the summer program.

Money

Volunteers

Advisors/board members

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Publicity/awareness

Education/training

Technical infrastructure (computers etc.)

Community outreach

Network/relationship support