Rewinding Our Past To Remix Our Future
What's The Story With The Organization's Name?
Our team decided on Project Remix Ventures after many days of discussing possibilities- some were bad, others decent and few were really good. We wanted to be sensitive about where we would be meeting our juvenile justice-involved youth, and be sure not to inadvertently bring shame, guilt or perpetuate any other label they had been given and accepted. That would have made the already hard work, harder.
Through this process, we learned how much each of us loved music so we started thinking about music themes that aligned with our vision, and thought we had landed on Project Mixtape because we would be listening to "a mixtape made up of different songs based on our youth's differing lived experiences". But then we found Nina Simone's Feeling Good song remixed with Lauryn Hill's Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by music producer, rapper and composer, Amerigo Gazaway. The song is already powerful with its lyrics "It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, ooh, And I'm feeling good" that so beautifully captured what we wanted our youth to feel and believe. When we all agreed that remixing Lauryn Hill into an already-powerful song, made it all the more powerful, we knew we had found our organization's name.
Project Remix Ventures is a celebration of the original version, but with featured collaboration.
The Opportunity Center meets Project Remix Ventures
Our local juvenile justice system has been an innovator within the youth justice reform space and had acnecdotal and quantitative data showing that traditional punitive approaches had proven ineffective. Recognizing the need for comprehensive, community-based interventions, the local juvenile justice system, repurposed a juvenile jail into The Opportunity Center (TOC), a community charter school focusing on GED, workforce development and onsite internships.
PRV was originally created to meet the ongoing case management needs of TOC alumni that needed further coaching, support services, and internship opportunities provided at the center, that extended past the youth justice system's jurisdiction, in order to support their post-secondary aspirations. Our stance is that what will ultimately redirect our justice-involved youth is preparation and access to a career. However, no matter if they choose entrepreneurship, college, short-term medical trade or welding- all of these require that students be self-directed, self-motivated and/or have the support system in place to maximize these opportunities; and that takes time to build. So, PRV emerged as a solution, not just for case management support, but to establish and manage social enterprises, or micro-businesses, that capitalize on the enrichment and vocational training already available at TOC, generating revenue that sustains the hourly wages of alumni employed by PRV's enterprises. PRV social enterprises provide access to the trusting relationships, wraparound supports and safe space to practice employability skills until they are ready to maximize career opportunities provided by employer partners.
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Since the 2022-23 school year, PRV has launched five social enterprises: La Bodega, TOC's school store; Printing Hope, for t-shirt print screening; REMixed Woodworking, for remixing wooden items; The Venture Project, specializing in laser engraving; and PurposeFull Designs, for branding and marketing services.
Want To Tour The Opportunity Center?
Email The Opportunity Center Director:
(713) 222-4438