Impact Story: Youthprise

​Youthprise aims boldly for the vision that Minnesota will lead the nation in accelerating leadership and innovation beyond the classroom. They and McKnight believe that our state's greatest untapped resource is the energy and ingenuity of youth. The struggles and issues our communities face will be more effectively addressed when we invest in youth and have youth and adults working together side-by-side. Youthprise was founded by The McKnight Foundation as an independent organization to increase the quality, accessibility, sustainability, and innovation of opportunities for learning beyond the classroom.

The YMCA Minneapolis Beacons Network, a Youthprise grantee, provides free, high-quality youth development opportunities during afterschool time and summers. One of its Beacon centers, housed in Nellie Stone Johnson Elementary School, runs a Beats and Rhymes program as part of their arts and cultural enrichment activities. In the summer of 2012, the North Minneapolis students in the program spent their time producing a YouTube hit. “Hot Cheetos and Takis” by Y.N.RichKids is the viral video that the NSJ students created, just one song out of eight albums the program has produced over the last three years. To date, the “Hot Cheetos” video has more than three million hits. Its stunning success is a tribute to the kids –and to the community program that allowed them the space, time, and tools to thrive.

Having the opportunity to shine through an afterschool program is crucial for youth to be able to build the life skills they need to contribute to society later in life. To that end, Youthprise brings together resources and people to identify and scale great programs and strengthen systems and policy so that all Minnesota youth thrive.