Vera and Joseph Dresner Foundation empowers youth

DENVER - Jan. 15, 2019 - PRLog -- YouthBiz, a program of Young Americans Center for Financial Education, has been awarded a two-year $25,000 grant from the Vera and Joseph Dresner Foundation to empower disadvantaged youth through entrepreneurship.  This grant will support continued expansion of entrepreneurial training programs in the Denver metro area.

The main objective of the Dresner Foundation is to carry on the legacy of Joseph and Vera Dresner by transforming lives in profoundly positive ways through grants focused on health, youth and family, and animal welfare.

Before 2015, YouthBiz's powerful, hands-on entrepreneurial education was available only to students in Denver's Five Points neighborhood.  Now accessible to low-income and at-risk youth throughout the Denver metro area, YouthBiz is expanding so more students can access YouthBiz training, proven to increase problem solving, collaboration, salesmanship and self-awareness.  These skills help students like 8^thgrader Matir succeed in life and school. His school director writes, "Martir's attitude is changed.  His personality is much more approachable, and he has a much better outlook on life…He really enjoyed [YouthBiz] StartUp and winning the competition as the top entrepreneur."

"Support for YouthBiz will advance the Vera and Joseph Dresner Foundation's mission," says Richard E. Martinez, Jr., President and CEO of Young Americans Center for Financial Education.  "Thanks to the Vera and Joseph Dresner Foundation, YouthBiz will empower more underserved Denver young people, allowing them to discover strengths, interests and confidence through the lens of entrepreneurship all at no cost to students or their families."

About Young Americans Center

Young Americans Center for Financial Education is a nonprofit organization committed to developing the financial literacy of young people, up to age 22, through real life experiences and hands-on programs. The Center fulfills its mission by offering programs that complement and reinforce each other to build life skills, work skills and financial self-sufficiency. These include Young AmeriTowne, International Towne, YouthBiz, Money Matters classes, summer camps, and more. In addition, Young Americans Center houses the only real bank in the world for young people, Young Americans Bank, which shares the same educational mission of teaching children to be financially responsible. Since 1987, more than 780,000 youth have participated in the programs or bank. For more information on the Young Americans Center for Financial Education, visit https://yacenter.org.