Smart North

The organization made significant progress towards our mission and goals in our first full operating year for the two tech hubs and the organization. We were able to engage and serve over 500 youth from ages 12 to 20+ across the two tech hubs - one in south minneapolis, in the george floyd neighborhood and the second in the deer river/ leech lake area. These youth come from underserved communities mostly with median income below the national poverty levels and are primarily bipoc. We forged strong partnerships with local schools and youth organizations to access these youth. As well as with industry experts and partners to conduct tech training and mentorship for our youth in variety of tech areas which ranged from high tech to creative tech including, cybersecurity, metaverse, 3d printing, sports tech, drones, crypt, entrepreneurship, music tech, robotics etc either as unstructured and exploratory bootcamps and as multi week foundational learn and earn programs where youth could earn stipend for completing the program and various learning milestones within. Smart North, while focused on creating access to leading edge and high demand 21st century tech skills for underserved communities also provides several support services such as warm meals, clothing and sel to our participants to bring down the barriers. We have served over 3000 meals in the first year itself. Our tech hub teams consist of locally hired members who come from the communities we serve who have done a wonderful job of providing culturally sensitive support and services to our participants.