Chairman’s Letter

Youth Business America & Youth Business International

Youth Business America (YBA) is an American initiative to bring the opportunity of starting sustainable businesses to young Americans who would otherwise lack the resources. At a time when there is an acute lack of job opportunities for American youth, our mission is extremely relevant.  Of the many micro-enterprise development organizations in the US, few if any focus specifically on young people and even fewer provide the seed capital for youth enterprises that typically must come from friends, family and savings.

The methodology of YBA and all members of the YBI Network is fundamentally the same:

• Find young entrepreneurs aged 18 to 35 who have training, character and passion, but lack the resources to start their own business
• Provide them with loan capital and
• Provide one-on-one volunteer mentoring and coaching to help them find the confidence and technical resources to grow successful businesses.

It is a methodology that has proved highly successful in both developed and emerging market economies.

The American start-up operation gains immediate strength through its affiliation with the U.K. based Youth Business International (YBI) and its worldwide network of Youth Business Programs operating in 38 countries.

YBI has operated for nine years and its only objectives are to assist the growth of its members and the expansion of the network membership. Its President is HRH The Prince of Wales who in 1978 created the Prince’s Trust in the UK, YBI’s longest running and most prolific member.  The Prince’s Trust alone helps approximately 2,000 youth businesses get launched in England annually.

YBI’s strong international brand supports the start-up of the American program in a number of important ways.

• YBI introduced YBA to a number of lead grant makers such as the Arthur Guinness Fund, The Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation and most recently Barclays Capital.  Inspired by the success of YBI’s business model in both developed and underdeveloped countries, they share our vision of the impact the program will have on young people in underserved communities when it takes root in American soil, and have provided funding to start-up YBA.
• Until YBA generates its own results on community impact, the operations of members of the YBI network in their own countries serve as an example of what YBA can do. In 2010, YBI members will support, through loans and mentoring, 7,000 new businesses bringing the cumulative number of youth enterprises supported through Youth Business Programs to almost 100,000 and generating an estimated 250,000 jobs. The success of our model is demonstrated by the fact that 70% of the businesses it helps launch are still in operation after 3 years.
• Most importantly, YBI opens its business model to the American Program which reflect the best practices of Youth Programs around the world and includes standardized operating systems, training protocols and a passionate staff of professionals whose sole focus is to get programs running and growing in new markets.  YBI Branding support comes through YBI’s accreditation and audit process under which all members of the YBI Network must periodically examined for adherence to standards to become and remain members of the YBI Network.

YBI  in turn benefits from YBA’s presence in its network as it will provide the opportunity for US based philanthropy to easily and efficiently invest internationally in YBI and its network by offering not only the tax advantages of a 501 (c) 3 registration but also a domestic example (in YBA) of its youth business program.

The partnership between YBI and YBA will also be important in the area of advocacy. Globally young people are between three and four times more likely than the general adult population to be neither in education, employment or training. The YBI Network has an important role in raising awareness and promoting an enabling environment for microenterprises begun by young people in these challenging economic times. Reflecting its impact in this arena, YBI holds the secretariat for youth entrepreneurship within the UN’s Youth Enterprise Network.

We are very fortunate to have found a team of people in the San Francisco Bay Area to launch our inaugural American program.  Many of the communities in Northern California are the hardest hit by the current economic climate and their young people will benefit greatly from this initiative.  Small businesses are proven to be the engine of job creation in the US economy and fostering their creation strengthens communities, creates new pathways out of poverty and will help lead the US out of its economic downturn.

Equally as important to the success of our program is the generosity of the base of entrepreneurs in the communities of the San Francisco Bay Area who have consistently demonstrated significant philanthropy, a passion for innovation and volunteerism that will fuel the successful launch of Youth Business America and supporting our vision of a healthier and more peaceful world built on new opportunities for economic prosperity for young people.

Sir Malcolm Williamson
July, 2010

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