Struggle is Your Success (SIYS)

Project Name: Our Path to Productivity

Calgary, AB

This youth entrepreneurship program is centred on shifting perspectives and outcomes. Speaking about the program and its participants on the organization’s webpage, Co-founder Adul Basit Ahmed states, “They are young, they are 14- 21 years old and they do not have the support systems. Rather than being in a survival mindset, to be in a creative mindset where they can unearth their potential.”

Struggle is Your Success is described as an 18 month program that allows youth to build employable skills, become empowered, and seek counsel from a mentor to allow them to better navigate adulthood. For youth of racialized communities, this program will specifically offer a space to analyse some of the challenges of systemic discrimination, and more importantly, to convert those experiences or struggles into stories of success.

The funding through SBCCI will support a 3-pronged approach to developing operational management processes and an organizational measurement framework. The team will hire a parttime Finance Lead and develop internal controls, including financial and budgetary policies. By elisting a Strategic Planning and Administrative Lead, SIYS will also streamline processes for fundraising and financial sustainability as they continue to build knowledge through leadership training.