Connecting Local Vendors and Creators to Consumers Across Los Angeles County

Access to tech and creative industry employment

Expand existing project, program, or initiative (expanding and continuing ongoing, successful work)

Marlon discovered his passion for photography during junior year of high school when he got his first smartphone. After school he’d capture moments with friends skateboarding in new areas they explored together. Marlon often found himself in trouble with his mom when he got home for playing on the phone, instead of looking for a job to pull his weight around the house. He was confused because it did not feel like a game. He knew it had the potential to add value to himself and others, but he just had to figure it out.
Later he searched, “Types of jobs to take pictures for a living,” then scrolled an overwhelming list of careers requiring years of proven industry expertise. His portfolio was an instagram page dedicated to his work, and had a resume of sweeping hair at the community barber shop as a kid. Frustrated, he resorts to taking a part time job at the grocery store across town, laying his newly found passion to the side.

Wrkz is designed to bridge the digital divide for underserved youth and young adults in Los Angeles. We harness digital technology and creativity to identify challenges faced by local vendors and use them as projects to provide hands-on paid work experience to local talent, like Marlon.
Creators 16-30 y.o. earn $16 - $25 per hour to venture through a thirty week curriculum that includes: the foundations of business development, hands-on practicum and work readiness training led by industry professionals. We offer in-person and on-line training and workshops, including pre and post skills assessments to measure our creators aptitude and success. Vendors are local start-up bakery entrepreneurs, and others who are looking to transition their companies to the next level. Our merchants lack the time, knowledge, and resources to keep up with advancements in technology, making them less competitive in the economy. Qualifying vendors are audited, scored and recommended a service from one of our low cost product development plans.
In beta we created 3 contract job opportunities for local early career creatives, and provided pro bono product development services, scaling 1 local start ups revenue by 900% - in only 6 months. Our platform cultivates the richness of untapped talent and entrepreneurs in Los Angeles, and fosters an accessible marketplace for all.

We envision a Los Angeles where creators and vendors from under-served communities have access to consumers around the country. A place where hundreds of youth and young adults like, Marlon, have a platform and support to pursue their career passion.
3 local entry level creators collaborated, researched, ideated and implemented their ideas into mainstream e-commerce and social platforms. They gained real life work experience towards their career goals, expanded their networks, and got paid. However, the work is not done. Although we've achieved great momentum towards our mission on a $50K operating budget, imagine what we could do with more.
Our next steps are to develop a strategy to further develop our program operations by hiring a contract COO to help streamline our processes. By year 2030 we plan to have generated over $7 million dollars in cumulative sales, secured 120 tech and creative jobs, and have served over 40 local startup companies in Los Angeles.

When asked, describe how Wrkz has impacted you. One creator said, “Wrkz keeps me focused [on my career] by giving me projects to work on,” another exclaimed “This is exactly the type of project I’ve been wanting to work on.” Even our vendor was pleasantly surprised, saying, “Working with yall helped more than I expected, business has literally been booming.”
Quantitatively, we examined our participants' engagement through attendance, and the completions of assigned tasks. Creators completed 100% of project deliverables and attended 90% of in person and online meetings, including shoot days, 1 on 1s, and team meetings. We measured the impact of our service provided by tracking vendors' revenue month to month, achieving a 900% increase in less than a year, post project launch. Our next steps are to improve our feedback mechanism for skills proficiencies, social networking, work readiness and job placements.