Sadly, most students are not provided with any exposure to different career options and how to access well-paying jobs that are in high demand. This is particularly evident for low-income students who have no examples in their family or neighborhood that can offer hope and inspiration. The expectation of failure provides no incentive to engage in education. If you don’t see a career opportunity in your future, why try? Even college bound students need to better understand career options. This will help them focus their studies more effectively.

Forward Career and College Academy will make career exploration a primary focus involving intensive personal counseling and interaction.

Each student will be addressed as an individual with unique challenges and opportunities. Counselors will work with students one on one to determine the student’s interests, aptitudes, abilities, challenges and motivations. The goal will be to provide them with guidance and mentorship to help them establish a vision and realize that they have career options that are in their control. They will be encouraged to explore these options through work-study elective courses. Personal coaching and mentoring is critical to open their eyes to opportunity and hope. Most students have no idea which careers are in high demand, what they pay, what the work looks like, or how they access these jobs.

The freshman year will involve an individualized evaluation of the students to determine the interventions and support needed to bring them to grade level and to determine what other support and services may be required to deal with the social-emotional needs of the students. Our goal is to have all students guided by a comprehensive individual Student Improvement Plan. Our students will see an avenue for a better future.

In their Junior and Senior years their curriculum will include off campus paid internships in their area of interest. We will partner with local businesses who are in need of workers. Many businesses have been struggling to fill vacancies and we have already talked to several who are excited to be part of this new vision. 

Traditional public schools offer little education in what it takes to manage finances, avoid debt traps, build wealth, and opportunities in entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, too many people are unprepared to manage their finances, save and invest, and build wealth for their future. An astonishing 46% of credit card holders have revolving unpaid balances that cost an average of 27% interest per year.  More than one in four Americans have savings below $1,000. There is a substantial racial wealth gap in this country.

We will teach students how to manage their finances by budgeting with a goal to save and invest. We will show them the options and vehicles for investing, how compound interest works, why and how to build wealth, and how they can build their own business. This will open their eyes to opportunities which many have not seen in their life experience. They will learn the basic skills needed to leverage the income they can expect from the career they select. 

Physical and emotional health are critical to living a long, successful life and critical to our society and economy. This country is facing a crisis in both. Although traditional public education attempts to address this, we believe we can do more.  Statistics support that belief. A disturbing 46% of Americans are obese and the trend lines are heading in the wrong direction. An equally disturbing 49% of adolescents report having had at least one emotional/mental health crisis. These numbers are even more drastic for people in poverty.

We will focus on nutrition and physical exercise and why they are important. Young people need to understand the difference between highly processed and natural foods and what they do to your body. We need to counter the marketing of unhealthy foods with information so they can make informed choices. We will expose students to the various forms of physical exercise and teach them the benefits for their health. Students will develop skills in stress management, mindfulness, conflict resolution, and meditation. We will deal substantively with drug and alcohol use and specifically how these substances can damage their brain, body and general health. Students will learn from a neuroscience perspective how these toxins work. Just like with food choices, students need to be armed with the latest science so they can make truly informed choices. 

Once a student is prepared with good career direction, financial skills, and physical and emotional awareness, the final important component in their success is engagement with their community. Young people should be aware of real, authentic news. Too much critical information about current events and issues is condensed into brief sound bites or distorted by biased media. We will empower students with the tools necessary to continue their pursuit of truth.

Too often people have become disengaged from critical events around them or are making decisions without accurate information. We intend to encourage students to pay attention to important events around them, encourage them to get involved and to vote. We will discuss current events that impact and interest our students. We will help them understand the founding principles of our country, how it works and how to make change when inequalities or injustices exist. Finally, we want to establish the value in giving back to the community through volunteer work and philanthropy. Our democracy will only work properly when citizens are informed, participate and recognize the importance of giving back to the community. 

(bgcdcbuilds.org)

In July 2023, after raising $31,000,000 we opened this 20,000 square foot facility in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Dane County and the Madison Area Builders Association.

The primary mission in the center is to expose young people to the opportunities in skilled construction trades and to teach financial literacy, wealth building, and entrepreneurship. The concept was so successfully received that the national organizations of our partners, Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the National Association of Homebuilders, adopted it as a national partnership after the Ford Foundation did a positive case study. The idea is now in 30 cities across the United States and is expanding.

The majority of our participants come from disadvantaged circumstances. We have been inspired to see these young people show up after school, on weekends, and during summer vacation. These are many of the same students who are underperforming in their public schools. One individual failed in math until he learned that he needed math for the concrete job he liked. With our help he took an interest in and became proficient in math. We are experiencing the power in establishing hope in these young people and how that simple idea creates motivation.