Compass Youth Center

Compass Youth Center is a registered 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization founded in 2009. Our goal is to create an education-to-career platform for all youth. With a lens towards underserved and underrepresented students in the k-12 demographic, we accomplish this by utilizing project-based and experiential learning experiences to reduce/eliminate the disparities and inequities in STEM.

Mission: Compass provides educational opportunities and services designed to empower and engage our youth. Our central focus hinges upon the creation and successful delivery of quality socioeconomic and community-based programs. With the goal of assisting our at-risk population, we also aim to combat the school-to-prison pipeline and promote personal/professional development for all.

Vision: Provide pathways out of poverty which lead to improved self-awareness, stronger workforce/economic development, healthier living and improved relations between communities, businesses, local leaders and government agencies.

Collectively, Wake and Durham Counties serve 200,000 students annually in grades k-12. Known as the Silicon Valley of the East Coast, the Research Triangle Park offers many rewarding and revolutionary careers in STEM. Preparing youth for academic, social-emotional, and post-secondary success in the triangle area (and beyond) requires intervention, innovation, and investment. Since 2015, local nonprofit Compass Youth Center has engaged over 500 students in STEM spanning 11 counties and school districts in North Carolina. Research shows that STEM and Sports help teach disconnected students essential concepts in programming, design thinking, and geometry STEM and sports: Teamwork to enhance student engagement (www.newsweek.com). Compass Youth Center accepts the challenge to address the inequities in STEM by introducing and scaling the concept of BasketBotz—a project-based learning experience that combines robotics with the fundamentals of financial literacy and entrepreneurship. Through collaboration with education, local government, the business sector, individuals, and other youth-serving organizations, WE can remove barriers to shared economic prosperity and improve health outcomes in underserved communities.