The United States Youth Chamber of Commerce (U.S.Y.C.C.) is a small International American Non-Profit Corporation headquartered in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Youth Chamber of Commerce is dedicated to promoting entrepreneurship and civic engagement, in 13-25 year old entrepreneurs, to encourage the highest and noblest form of professionalism, and to aid the community in its efforts to achieve higher social, economic, and intellectual status by continuing the message of change through action. [1]
The History:
U.S.Y.C.C. was founded by Connell Wise who is an American social entrepreneur and government official. Connell founded the chamber in the summer of 2008 while he was attending a Social Business Summit at American University in Washington D.C.
At the time Connell was the C.E.O. of the C.W.B.N. (Connell Wise Broadcasting Network) [2] a small online news website that gives disadvantaged youth a place where they can report the things happening around them. Originally the United States Youth Chamber of Commerce was called (N.A.Y.O.B.) The National Association of Youth-Owned Businesses.[1]
Chamber Programs:
The chamber offers many different programs from academic ones such as bookkeeping, management 101,using social media and more, to political education seminars, and network and community service opportunities.
Legal Structure : The United States Youth Chamber of Commerce is a Non-Profit Corporation under the District of Columbia Non-Profit Corporation Act. In 2010 the Chamber partnered with (N.Y.R.A.). The National Youth Rights Association is a not-for-profit corporation/organization as described under Internal Revenue Code 501(c) (3) and NYRA serves in an fiscal sponsorship capacity.[5]
Transparency: The United States Youth Chamber of Commerce has a board of directors of 12 people. The Chamber is a member of GuideStar, monitoring services for non-profits. The Chamber releases its report annual report to GuideStar. Currently, GuideStar has recently awarded the Chamber as one of it transparent organization. [3]
U.S. Leadership
Connell Wise is the Founder and CEO of Wise Corp Holding’s Company and all its sub-companies (U.S. Youth Chamber of Commerce & Connellslist,com). Connell has been a youth rights advocate for the past 6 years and has brought his beliefs of youth-involvement in government to both local and national levels. In several capacities, Connell has worked for the District of Columbia government as a Government Commissioner over the Executive Office of The Mayor Office of Volunteerism, as well as his work in the White House in the Office of Presidential Correspondence as a Volunteer Correspondent. Previous to this, Connell founded C.W.B.N. (Connell Wise Broadcasting Network) an online news website that gives teens a place to report what is happening in their community and offers a forum to discuss how they feel about it. Currently, Connell is in his third year as a double major at Curry College studying Management and a Communication with a concentration in Television Production/Digital Video and a minor in Applied Computing. Recently, Connell worked as an Employment Investigator with the District Department of Employment Services.
He also recently received a Presidential recognition for his volunteerism getting the Bronze, Silver and Gold Presidential Volunteer Service Awards. Additionally, Connell also earned the President’s Call to Service Award for having over 4,000 hours of volunteer service over a lifetime. Connell is an active member of Community Emergency Response Team in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Medical Reserve Corp. Connell currently serves in the Executive Function of two other non-profit corporations: The National Youth Rights Association as the Director for Political Affairs, and with The Learning Disability Association of Massachusetts as their Clerk and Finance Director.
The U.K. Division:
The United Kingdom’s Youth Chamber of Commerce is the UK arm of the U.S. Youth Chamber. The U.K. Chamber is a social enterprise located in Leeds, U.K. and was founded in 2011 by Al Barry, member of Youth Parliament and Co-Founded by Connell Wise. Currently the U.K. chamber C.E.O. is Blessing M. who is an author and social entrepreneur.[8]
U.K. Leadership
The Current President of the United Kingdom’s Youth Chamber of Commerce is Blessing M. An 18 year old Young Social Entrepreneur with a mission to inspire, educate and motivate young people to become successful. He started off in 2009 when he launched his own contract cleaning company at the age of 16 which got him the motivation to support other young people and make them believe you can do it to.
With the future uncertain for many young people, Blessing and another Young Entrepreneur called Sean Hamilton partnered with Live Unltd (Foundation for social entrepreneurs) to offer young people turn their ideas to make a positive impact on their community by running a youth entrepreneurship boot camp. The event was a mix of workshops on social entrepreneurship, inspirational guest speakers, networking with young entrepreneurs and opportunities for young people to pitch their bright idea for up to £2000 of funding.
The event was a success and all the young people went away with a great quantity of experience and also with £2000 to set up their own projects in the community. Out of 700 events Blessing’s event was one of the 131 events that won the Outstanding Impact Award in 2010.
Blessing’s mission is to inspire, educate and motivate young people to be successful entrepreneurs and this got him to set up Bright Futures Enterprise. Bright Futures Enterprise runs enterprising workshops in schools and also supports young people wanting to set up their own business.
Blessing’s vision is to inspire more young people to become entrepreneurs this lead him to write this book, ‘Who Said You Can’t be Young And Successful’. The confidence and inspiration that Blessing observed amongst young entrepreneurs inspired him to interview twenty young entrepreneurs from around the world to find out what it’s like to be a young entrepreneur from their own perspective. He wanted to use the experiences of some of the top entrepreneurs from around the world to show young people what it’s like to be your own boss and to obtain tips for the new generation of entrepreneurs. He believes that this book is not just a book but it’s a motivation tool that will make young people say,’ WOW I can do this too’.
He believes the book provides a platform for young people to showcase all the positive things they have achieved and will give young people the opportunity he to learn from people who are of similar age who have ‘been there and done it’. If you have the passion then nothing is stopping you, so believe in yourself and don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way.
Blessing is also a member of a fair-trade social enterprise in Leeds which is called ‘Not Just Us’. Not Just Us Leeds is an innovative youth led fair-trade social enterprise made up of ten young people who are there to raise awareness of the fair-trade issue. They believe that awareness of ethical and fair trade issues have not yet fully reached many marginalized communities in the UK and other developed countries. From here ‘Not
Just Us Leeds’ will be working on developing a Fair-trade product that can be marketed in supermarkets across the UK. Watch out for them on your shelves.
Awards:
- Dosomething Project of the Week
- Letter of Greeting from Mayor of Washington D.C.
- CEO gets Birthday Letter form U.S. President Obama
- Global Entrepreneurship Week National PArtner Participation Award
References
[1] www.usyouthchamber.com www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QbB47xiVNY www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2bTX4-_HC8
[2] www.cwbn.tv
[3]http://www2.guidestar.org/organizations/27-0991426/national-association-youth-owned-businesses.aspx
[4] http://raisingceokids.com/2010/11/spotlight-on-ceo-kid-connell-wise-of-us-youth-chamber-of-commerce/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spotlight-on-ceo-kid-connell-wise-of-us-youth-chamber-of-commerce
[5] www.youthrights.org
[6] http://www.dosomething.org/project/youth-ecopreneurship-program
[7]http://www.facebook.com/pages/Connell-Wise/193857670624440
External sites
[8]Www.usyouthchamber.com
[9]Www.ukyouthchamber.com
