OUR PROJECTS
Learn about our Community and Business Projects
Our projects give all individuals the opportunity to learn six valuable competitive Essential Skills:
🔊 Critical Thinking - Communication - Collaboration
📚 Interpersonal Skills - Executive Function - Proactivity
Our community projects offer amazing experiences for youth and young adults that leave lasting impacts, with each project being long-term, typically spanning 6 months to 1 year.
THE COMMUNITY PROJECTS
Our youth and young adults write competitive essays, create project charters, design websites, and engage in voice overs, storytelling, video creation, and more...
MOST NOTABLE PROJECT
The NewGen-r youth leaders are leading the way in fostering innovation, entrepreneurship, and community growth.
NewGen-r took on a tough community project between the county and state, a highway roundabout.
Project Recommendation: shown left to right, proposed design roundabout, current appearance, names of youth leaders and student volunteers, blueprint.
ABOUT
Beautification Community Project
Highway 166/92
This community project lasted one year and a month, led by youth who sought to beautify their neighborhood. One student hand-drew the initial blueprint, while others used CAD technology to create a detailed design for the proposal. Also, NewGen-r organized a petition, gathering 100 signatures, and recruited fellow students to join the effort. The team authored a report, which they presented to the County Chairperson and the Planning & Zoning Manager. Many residents were unaware of the beautification issues before this initiative. Community professionals contributed their expertise, helping the youth learn about private equity, transportation, writing techniques, sales, GDOT responsibilities, outreach strategies, technology, and career opportunities.
NewGen-r are in collaboration to brainstormed ideas for Phase II.
Community Awareness - On a Thursday Evening, NewGen-r youth leaders headed to HomeDepot garden center to make citizens aware and get citizens ideas for the project
Petition @ Community Event - September Saturday - NewGen-r youth leaders got 100 signatures for the petition
PROJECTS FOCUSED ON COMMUNITY GAPS
"JA-30 is our annual signature community project, involving six months of planning. Youth leaders recruit students ages 10-14 to attend a summer enrichment camp, where we celebrate the students for making a valuable investment in themselves. The project's purpose is to help close the summer learning gap in under-served communities and to increase parent engagement in their children's education." Youth create flyers, outreach, recruit volunteers, present, develop the project plan for the events and video making and create the video and more...
A group of community leaders, in collaboration with ReachBack, organized a day of conversations that brought together studentsand senior citizens.
BUSINESS PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Students, parents, entrepreneurs, small businesses, and CEOs gathered for a day of celebration on entrepreneurship. The panel discussion featured four youth leaders from the Hwy 166/92 community project, their two volunteers, a former small business owner of a bank, and the CEO of Junior Achievement.
Learn About 6-Weeks of Community Engagement & Career Development
This 6-week project, conducted in partnership with Georgia Piedmont Technical College and DeKalb County leadership was created in collaboration with ReachBack. The young student collective work with ReachBack condensed all six weeks into a 30 minute video, showcasing the participants' journey as they learned entrepreneurship and software skills from Monday through Thursday. To further develop the participants' entrepreneurial mindset, ReachBack introduced "Meetup Fridays," where students gained hands-on experience in networking, interviewing, collaborating, and exploring various career paths. We invited a diverse group of speakers, from Vice Presidents to small business owners and youth leaders, to share their knowledge. We hope you enjoy and learn from the video!
ONGOING INITIATIVE PROJECT - HWY 166/92
The project is in the Douglas County 5-year Comprehensive Plan and NewGen-r and student volunteers will continue Phase II to ensure the project gets traction at the county level
FINANCIAL LITERACY & STEM PROJECTS
Students learned responsibilities of being part of a homeowners association, reviewed financial statements, analyzed community issues when some homeowners do not pay their part, discussed careers, provided their takeaways from the lesson, and designed the landing page and letter for homeowners.
Students and parents had a meeting workshop with Etrade to see real trading
YOUTH MENTORS REACHBACK PROJECTS
Our Douglas County NewGen-r youth leaders, Autumn, Miracle, Chase, and Christian launched their ReachBack initiative by starting a reading club called NewGen Readers, aimed at helping young students improve their reading skills. They meet monthly. The pictures and gallery below showcase their conference day for participants.
BEFORE WE WERE KNOWN AS REACHBACK
This year-long project engage students and parents in learning about fabric production and the textile industry. Together, they explored how alpaca coats are processed into yarn and sold to manufacturers. A fashion show provided an opportunity for youth and parents to creatively design their own outfits, furthering their education in the field.
Our business projects have made a significant impact in the communities we serve, providing tangible benefits, such as $5.0 million in access to capital to community businesses, creating and retaining 62 full-time and 2 part-time jobs, and potential savings and career development opportunities for 32 youth and young adults.
THE BUSINESS PROJECTS
Theses projects have generated income per payroll of over $2.5 million per year, contributing to the local tax revenues, along with intangible benefits like fostering economic growth and empowering local entrepreneurs.
ReachBack Entrepreneurship Pre-Accelerator Cohort II 2024.
A Veteran & A Truck
The "A Veteran & A Truck" provides dumpster rental and junk removal
ReachBack Project will launch - Contract 20 partnerships
Aunt Evenlyn's Peach Cobbler
Aunt Evelyn's Peach Cobbler makes delicious pies and cobblers just like grandmom's
ReachBack Project will launch - Contract 20 partnerships
Learn More About Other ReachBack Entrepreneurs and Business Projects.
ReachBack community projects are designed to ensure individuals gain the six Essential Skills employers find competitive
Outcomes - Gaining Six Valuable Essential Skills, Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship, Real Hands-on, All While Having Fun and Making Change
Chart is taken from the Debruce Essential Skills Study : 2016, KC Rising released the Common Sector Competencies report