Time is closing in fast on the end of my time at RiseGo and it has been full of challenges much greater than I expected. While doubt about my ability to plow through certainly entered by mind at times I am excited that changes I have been pushing for a lot of my term are now beginning to come to pass.
Much of my term the target population of RiseGo and our program set-up haven’t matched up. RiseGo’s goal is to reach inner city high school students and train them to be their own boss and build businesses that improve not only their lives but the lives of their community. But the reality is that the students who are at that level off the bat usually have stable home lives, have been ingrained with a value for education, and are willing to pay for programs, which is not the majority of the inner city population. We still aim to get our entrepreneurs to the level but we have come to realize the starting point needs to be more basic. Thus now we are slimming down and working on creating lower level programming that focuses first on job readiness skills. If you don’t have the skills to work for someone else you probably don’t have the time management skills, professionalism, and the drive necessary to create your own venture. Plus this is applicable even to students who do not decide to pursue entrepreneurship as their direction.
As for myself I am in my job search mode, trying to discern what is next for me. I love Rochester and my desire is to stay here and begin working in my degree doing web/interactive design and development. I plan to stay very active in the Rochester non-profit world and apply my skills there as well. But the dream long term is: you guessed it! to be an entrepreneur! (of sorts.) I hope to go freelance long term and ideally to work for Rochester non-profits. This will also leave me flexibility to use other my skills in forwarding the mission of non-profits in a volunteer role as well. Until then I’m taking life a day at time and pushing to finish well.
David Kraines
Capacity Building Specialist
RiseGo Inc.
Rochester Youth Year 