In June 2020, the Boys & Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan launched the world’s first-ever Fashion Industry Club in partnership with Bedrock, Ponyride, Detroit is the New Black and Deviate. Over the past two years, the Woodward site served as a micro-ecosystem for minority-owned small businesses looking to grow their brands, and provided youth interested in exploring careers in fashion, merchandising and entrepreneurship with first-hand experience operating a business. Both the Fashion Industry Club workforce and entrepreneurship training program, and small business accelerator will continue service during development of the newly expanded model.
“The next iteration of the Fashion Industry Club allows us to take the key learnings from the initial pilot and create something even more impactful for minority-owned small businesses, creatives and young entrepreneurs in Detroit,” said Shawn H. Wilson president and CEO of BGCSM. “One of our greatest learnings is the power of intentionally creating a pipeline of resources and talent between neighborhoods and downtown. We’ll forever be grateful to our partners for taking a chance on this concept and look forward to working with them in our next phase.”
The downtown location allowed BGCSM to create a pipeline of talent and resources from Detroit and Highland Park neighborhoods to downtown Detroit. The early success of the Fashion Industry Club led to the replication of the model across four new industries including Sports, Entertainment, Data Science and Risk Management, and brought in over $1,500,000 in program investment from leading Michigan brands including, General Motors, NFL Foundation, Detroit Pistons, Detroit Red Wings, Pure Michigan Business Connect, Amerisure and Sterling Insurance Group.
Most impressively, five Club youth were able to launch their own small businesses after completion of the Industry Club program. These small businesses include fashion brand, multimedia companies and more.
“The Industry Club is all about readiness and providing us with the tools to become the entrepreneurs and business owners of tomorrow,” said Leon Morehead Industry Club member and entrepreneur. “It has allowed me to learn about all the sides of owning a business from the ability to work with a deadline, cooperation and standing on my own ideas. I’m happy to have had this experience and recommend others to join the Industry Club too.”
Leon is the only youth that has completed all five of our industry Clubs and became a multimedia entrepreneur and podcaster.
Over 150 youth received paid experience through the Industry Club and 81 brands were provided with an entry point to sell their products downtown with Detroit is The New Black serving as the anchor partner.
Youth are invited to attend the Industry Club Career Fair and Showcase at the Detroit Pistons Practice Facility, this Friday February 25, 2022 at 4pm where they can apply for all respective Industry Clubs on-site. Learn more at www.bgcsm.org/industry-club
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