Cafe Creates Space With Crowdfunding To Empower Youth Through Entrepreneurship And Educational Programs – CoffeeTalk

Dontavious Young, founder of Equal Minded Café and the Big Ideas Foundation, is creating a space for high school students to build businesses, find purpose, and take ownership of their futures. The foundation’s mission is to uplift youth and reimagine education beyond the classroom. On the seventh anniversary of Equal Minded Café, the coffee shop and community hub, Young raised $15,000 through a Kiva Kansas City microloan campaign, which will help him hire staff, grow educational programming, and reach even more students.

The Big Ideas Foundation, launched in 2023, offers a structured entrepreneurship curriculum tailored for high school students, emphasizing social entrepreneurship. The course was originally built to be in schools full-time, the entire year, but the goal is to get it accredited so students get college credits for finishing, maybe up to 12 credits. This head start can help steer students toward local colleges, and eventually, back to the neighborhoods that raised them.

One of the program’s most hands-on offerings is its youth roasting program, where students learn how to roast their own coffee beans, build unique coffee brands, and create personal income streams. They are not just learning how to make coffee, but also how to own the process, build something that’s theirs, and understand every part of the supply chain. Through this program, students are exposed to wholesale operations, branding, and marketing, essential tools for building a business that lasts.

Yuan believes in the power and potential of young people and believes that ignoring youth in favor of early childhood programs leaves a dangerous gap. He believes that ignoring youth in favor of early childhood programs leaves a dangerous gap, as there is no more support around middle school.

Beyond the classroom, Young also brings people together through an annual fundraiser called Toast for Teachers, a bar crawl that celebrates educators while sparking real conversations around the future of education. Bringing teachers into these spaces gets business owners thinking differently, and they might change their political views because they have teachers in their space all the time talking about specific things.

Young envisions a future where coffee shops across the country are managed and owned by students who’ve completed the Big Ideas program. Such spaces would serve real customers, generate real revenue, and offer hands-on business training every day. Young envisions the model spreading beyond Kansas City, where students need to see what’s possible. Even if his name isn’t attached to every success, Young said the ripple effect is enough.

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