YOUTH FOUNDER TEAMED UP WITH FORTUNE 500 COMPANIES TO HELP UNDERSERVED COMMUNITIES

In response to the dig­i­tal divide with­in the edu­ca­tion­al sys­tem for youth in under­served com­mu­ni­ties, one of the lead­ing glob­al non­prof­its found­ed six years ago, by a then 13-year-old Black young woman, teamed up with For­tune 500 com­pa­nies this week to help empow­er and pro­vide edu­ca­tion­al and career resources for over 700 youth in one of the most deserv­ing com­mu­ni­ties in Atlanta, GA.

S.T.R.E.A.M. Glob­al Inno­va­tions is the lead­ing and youth-found­ed 501©3 non­prof­it that has been con­nect­ing the dots between edu­ca­tion and career in low-income and under­served com­mu­ni­ties since 2015. Found­ed by now 20-year-old Founder and Edu­ca­tion Advo­cate, Nia­mani Knight, along­side the Pres­i­dent of the orga­ni­za­tion, her moth­er, Nikia Richards, their mis­sion is to ensure every stu­dent has equal access to edu­ca­tion and career oppor­tu­ni­ties in order to cre­ate a world where diver­si­ty and access are the norm and not the excep­tion, through inno­va­tion, edu­ca­tion, and col­lab­o­ra­tion.

With a like-mind­ed com­mu­ni­ty and cor­po­rate part­ner­ships in Sci­ence, Tech­nol­o­gy, Read­ing, Engi­neer­ing, Arts, and Man­u­fac­tur­ing, the moth­er-daugh­ter duo have suc­cess­ful­ly served over 27,000 peo­ple thus far through inter­ac­tive exhi­bi­tions, indus­try expert expo­sure, vir­tu­al acti­va­tions, and peer sup­port in addi­tion to reach­ing over 97 mil­lion glob­al­ly. 

On Fri­day, August 27, 2021, stem­ming from the organization’s S.T.R.E.A.M Unplugged ini­tia­tive, which is designed to help pro­vide edu­ca­tion­al resources for youth with­out access, Knight and Richards gal­va­nized and teamed up with PPG, Lock­heed Mar­tin, Home Depot amongst oth­ers to host the annu­al acti­va­tion of S.T.R.E.A.M ATL. After 17 months of youth with­in mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties fac­ing chal­lenges that were ampli­fied dur­ing remote learn­ing due to the lack of access to Wifi, at-home sup­port, and more, S.T.R.E.A.M ATL helped ignite the stu­dents to go after lim­it­less pos­si­bil­i­ties through the empow­er­ment and resources pro­vid­ed by the 501c3 orga­ni­za­tion and their part­ner­ing cor­po­ra­tions.

Each stu­dent received basic school sup­plies such as reams of paper, along­side COVID sup­plies, writ­ing tablets, and more. In addi­tion, to being equipped and learn­ing about sus­tain­abil­i­ty while com­bat­ing food inse­cu­ri­ty through gar­den­ing box­es pro­vid­ed by Home Depot and Scotts.

The stu­dents were also cel­e­brat­ed by 23 mem­bers of the Tri-Cities Visu­al and Per­form­ing Arts High School Drum­line and cheer squad. In addi­tion, they had a spe­cial vis­it by the May­or of East Point, Deana