Young Futures is a Capital Region organization that is offering a hands-on Financial Literacy program for children at the Howe Branch this month. Their program serves children ages 8-13. This program is supported by FFAPL.
Established in 2012, Young Futures began with a completely different goal in mind. Originally created to support adults in need during cold winter months, Young Futures now organizes a mixture of programs that allow children to focus on their imagination, personality, and individualism. Young Futures is a safe space where children can develop socially with the help of artistic activities.
Young Futures first program was far from what they do now, but they were still serving the community in a big way. When founder James Mitchel moved to the Capital Region, he noticed an immediate need for adult winter coats within the homeless community. This gave him the idea to start collecting and donating winter coats for local adults in need. In partnership with Albany SNUG (Should Never Use Guns), they were able to give away over 250 coats during the winters of 2012 – 2015. Shortly after that time, Young Futures changed their focus to youth art and education programs hosting events like “Art & Sole” (2017) and a children’s “Paint and Sip” (2018) at Albany Barn. Their first educational art events, “Art & Sole,” used art and fashion as a platform to encourage creativity. Community artists volunteered and taught children art techniques like illustration, stenciling, and embroidery. Students were provided with a pair of blank canvas shoes to design anyway they wanted. Encouraging creativity, imagination, and artistic ability. Their kid- friendly Paint & Sip the following year was taught by local artist, Jalaun Taylor.
Today, Young Futures focuses on much more than just arts and crafts. They’ve focus on a wide variety of topics that might not be taught in a traditional classroom, such as self-love, minority mental health, and the importance of community work. Young Futures sees a direct correlation between how many creative outlets a kid has and the quality of their mental health. They’ve seen firsthand the difference that art can play in a child’s life. Their current program at the Howe Branch is called The Financial Literacy Art Program. This program is intended to teach the importance of banking and budgeting, the differences between assets and liabilities, and introduces children to financial terms including equity, credit, and interest. This program aims to teach children the importance of having their own relationships with money in a creative and memorable way. The lessons are tools that will develop a solid financial background for their future or current endeavors. The Financial Art Class is coupled with an artistic aspect which allows the children to create crafts that go along with a financial lesson of the day.
Young Futures is dedicated to bringing free arts education to kids in local underserved communities. This program is made possible thanks to your donations to the FFAPL Annual Appeal.
Find out more about Young Futures on their Instagram or Facebook page. If you would be interested in volunteering with the Young Futures program in the future HERE.
