NEXT STEPS YOUTH ENTREPRENEUR PROGRAM INC

The Problem
Joel Rose, Co-founder of New Classrooms Innovation Partners, a non-profit organization focused on bringing transformative innovation to K-12 schooling stated that, "Addressing learning loss now and for the future requires staying steadfast to the idea of college and career readiness as the ultimate goal, but allowing more flexibility in the time and pathways that individual students take to get there. It means that some teachers will need to spend part of the year focused on key learning gaps without fear that their expectations will be viewed as insufficient. They’ll need the tools, the training and the permission to do so."

Our Solution
Community On Demand is a flexible, blended-learning, employment solution that integrates the fun of a card game into individually customized curricula, hands-on leadership training, and meaningful work-based learning experiences. It helps learners of all ages define, measure, build and name their high demand employability skills while teaching them how to create, secure and retain career-building opportunities within their local communities. As a project-based learning platform, Community On Demand satisfies the urgent need for innovative solutions that address learning loss and provides educators with game-based learning tools that quickly build high-demand employability skills for college & career readiness.

Our Approach
Our focus is on providing a better more systematic, uniformed and less cumbersome approach towards meeting the employability skills development requirements included in all U. S. elementary, middle and high school Career, Technical & Education (CTE) Curricula (Course Standard #1.) Our five color-coded achievement domains and STEAM skills self-assessment worksheets help learners “visualize” their career mapping conversations and develop actionable plans with immediate buy-in and measurable results. Our STEAM Investigative Process enhances work-based learning experiences strengthen up to 63 of their high-demand employable skills through leadership, critical thinking, teamwork and problem solving that will make them competitive in the current and future workforce as well as provide personal growth and development and social/economic opportunities.

Our Key Components
There are five components to The Community On Demand Card Game Curriculum:
• CoD Card Deck - an innovative 72pc pocket-size card game curriculum that uses five color-coded achievement domains to help learners quickly define, measure, build and name their high-demand employability skills.
• CoD Game Board - a reusable 18" x 24" dry-erase project-based mapping tool that allows learners to visually see applied use of each skill card from the Community On Demand card deck. This game board makes skill-building and team-building fun!
• CoD Skills Self-Assessment Worksheet – a single use, letter-sized project-based mapping checklist that helps learners quickly assess how they apply use of each skill card from the Community On Demand card deck.
• Money Guide for Young Entrepreneurs Activity Workbook - The official textbook for the Community On Demand card game curriculum -- provides eight easy lessons to help learners assess their employability skills, build their Junior Executive Management (JEM) Team, create impact solutions and career-building opportunities, and even launch new social ventures
• Money Guide for Young Entrepreneurs Online Course (Curriculum Series) - Online courses that guide learners through the Money Guide for Young Entrepreneurs Activity Workbook and Community On Demand card game competitions with in-depth digital visuals, audio tracks, and activity worksheets.

FAQs:
What Career & Technical Education (CTE) Standards does Community On Demand meet?
Each component contains attributes/competencies/skills based on the Employability Skills Framework of the U.S. Perkins V Act for Career & Technical Education, meets Standard 1 of every National Career & Technical Education curricula for the 17 STEAM Career Clusters, and is being used as a textbook resource for the NEW! Workforce Ready Career Pathway curriculum of the Georgia Department of Education and Georgia Employability Skills Task Force.

Who created Community On Demand and how is it administered?
Community On Demand was created by U.S. Army Veteran, Dana Jewel Harris and is administered by The NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program (a 501c3 nonprofit organization) through the development of Junior Executive Management (JEM) Teams and their implementation of meaningful, work-based learning experiences.

2021-2027 Long-Term Goals | Serve 10 school districts; 20,000 Students
In order to put a Community On Demand game set in the hands of each student, this would require a minimum of
$400,000 - To purchase the Community On Demand card decks @ $20 ea,
$100,000 - To purchase new game boards @ $5.00 ea and
$100,000 - To purchase skills assessment worksheets @ $5.00 ea
$600,000 - To purchase The Money Guide for Young Entrepreneurs Activity Workbooks @ $30
$1,980,000 - To provide 1Yr access to The Money Guide for Young Entrepreneurs Online Course Series @ $99.00 ea

Use of Funds:
• Hire 3 staff for coding, gaming/mapping app development and online back office management of Community On Demand Digital Media Network.
• Hire 2 staff for program management, marketing and administration

Most Recent Achievements | 2020-2023 Paulding County Pilot Program MOU
NEXT Steps secured an MOU with Paulding County School District CTAE Director and began hosting Train-The-Trainer Workshops for 10 educators and administrators in August 2020. They purchased the Community On Demand card game curriculum to pilot with 500 students in October 2020. Over the next three years, NEXT Steps expects to achieve the following milestones within the Paulding County School District & NW GA RESA:
• 20,000 students (16% capture rate of 214,000 students)
• 2,000 educators
• 500 Nonprofits
• 680 For Profits

After conducting these FY2022 play dates, we are partnering with:
• Legacy Music School (Clayton County) -- a music school to serve as the anchor for the Community On Demand Digital Media Network (target 600 participants)
• Favor House (College Park) - a nonprofit that offers sports program for at-risk College Park youth that is going to use Community On Demand to conduct an awareness campaign for their organization (reach 4,000 residents with the help of a newly elected official Joe Carn).
• 30-Acre Private Farm (Fayetteville, GA) - A new site to replicate our Agricultural Technologies With Open Outdoor Design (ATWOOD) Model which uses Community on Demand with farming to teach kids business strategy, event management, economic development, and entrepreneurship.
• Rain/Fire Church (Douglasville, GA) - a church family that owns 200 acres and a "business incubator/studio hub" that wants to use Community On Demand to develop a leadership training program specifically to help retired veterans and those leaving active duty become community leaders and youth mentors
• F1ne-Tune (Georgia & Alabama) - a professional development company that has agreed to promote and offer Community On Demand's professional development courses (3) as one of their services.
• National Women In Ag Agriculture Group - Is introducing Community On Demand as an employability skills development solution for agriculture to Fort Valley State University and their AgriTeens high school ag program.
• Holiness Is The Way (Online Ministry; 3.3K followers) – a nonprofit organization that shares bible-based inspirational words of encouragement through its YouTube channel that wants to use Community On Demand to build their nonprofit organization, increase their congregation’s engagement through digital technology, and develop a multi-state call-to-action through service-learning projects.
• The Liberated Minds Black Educational Resource Directory (International Network) - a worldwide culturally relevant hub for Black parents, educators, homeschoolers, and simply those in our community that act on the importance of investing in and cultivating the genius in our children, building our families, and preserving our culture.

About Us
The NEXT Steps Youth Entrepreneur Program is an award-winning, 501c3 private operating nonprofit foundation located in Atlanta, GA. It was founded in 2008 by Dana Jewel Harris, CEO of The NEXT Steps Small Business Incubator (NS-SBI).

Ms. Harris has been teaching students and local leaders how to use her signature Community Involvement Growth Strategy (CIGS) Models as a platform to bridge the communications gap between the local education and business communities. Her mental toughness, personal development, and leadership training platform also establishes lines of communication between the students, schools, volunteers, mentors and professionals within the 17 high-demand STEAM industries that fuel Georgia’s economy.

She created Community On Demand as a game-based learning tool for STEAM entrepreneurship so that she could develop a talent pipeline management system that strengthened the employability skills of today’s youth and young adult workforce. Her capacity building and skills development programs have served Title I school districts and communities that develop comprehensive local needs assessment plans, school improvement plans, school-parent involvement policies, and Career & Technical Education curricula in order to address, reduce and eliminate the socio-economic conditions that negatively impact the special populations they serve (as defined by the Carl D. Perkins CTE Federal Fund).

Her goal is to revolutionize how STEAM education is taught. Instead of traditional lectures, she centered her learning tools around financial literacy, blockchain technology, STEAM education, entertainment and entrepreneurship. Today, she uses the Community On Demand Digital Society & Activation Process as her main vehicle for engaging communities through her CIGS Model to ensure learners of all ages are provided with meaningful, work-based learning experiences and career-building opportunities that positively impact their local economies.