Fund raiser for BIPOC YOUTH
On Nov. 5th, 5% of sales will go directly to The Blueprint Foundation and Powerful Voices, two nonprofits working with BIPOC youth in Portland and Seattle.
Meet The Blueprint Foundation
“The northwest is a bastion of environmentalism and there’s so much opportunity... We saw a need and an opportunity there and we created a program that was culturally specific serving Black-identified youth.”
On any given Saturday, 20-30 Portland teenagers head outside to discover a hidden world. They might paddle an urban estuary in search of amphibians, clear brush at a local botanical garden, build a planter box at a BIPOC-owned business, or just be outdoors with a few college-age mentors and trusted friends.
All the while, they’re building a pathway for themselves, one that could lead to a lifelong love of the outdoors, or maybe even a career in the Green sector. That’s the goal of the Blueprint Foundation: Give Black urban youth the hands-on practice, exposure, resources and learning opportunities they often don’t access to close the opportunity gap in environmental careers.
The northwest is a bastion of environmentalism and there’s so much opportunity,” says Jason Stroman, Blueprint’s program director. “But it’s still a homogenous industry. We saw a need and an opportunity there and we created a program that was culturally specific serving Black-identified youth.”
Led by Executive Director Derron Coles, the program also encompasses culture-matched mentoring in construction careers, especially those in green building and infrastructure. Now in its sixth year, Blueprint has seen almost all participants earn high school diplomas and some pursue environmental studies degrees and return to the program as mentors for the next cohort of young Black students.
Meet POWERFUL VOICES
“We really believe that if society listened to these young folks and their experiences, a lot of the social problems we have could be challenged and resolved.”
Powerful Voices helps young girls of color in Seattle build confidence, share their unique stories, and find their voices as change makers. A longtime partner with Seattle Public Schools and various nonprofits, the organization transitioned during the pandemic from in-person after school programs to finding ways of providing mental health support for the Black and brown young women and gender nonbinary youth it serves.
“We really believe that if society listened to these young folks and their experiences, a lot of the social problems we have could be challenged and resolved,” says Aisha Al-Amin, the organization’s development manager.
A summer program called Black Girls Create tapped into creative forms of expression, while Powerful Voices Radio is a new student-led podcast produced by girls in the program. Episodes have provided a forum for these young women to discuss beauty standards, experiences of racism in public schools, and youth activism. “We try to affirm that we don’t just want to hear you, we also want to know how we can support you in creating change,” Al-Amin says.
Please visit any Grand Central Bakery location on Friday, Nov. 5, to support The Blueprint Foundation and Powerful Voices.