If you were to ask somebody born by the mid-90's, "do you remember the stoop growing up?" you'd probably hear childhood memories that can be traced throughout our generations. There was a time when it was common to lean-on our people for moral/communal/collateral support, with the good intent of reciprocity. In our collective struggle there was collective gain in appreciate of what we had and what was to come.

 

Leap forward to 2015, where that there is a trillion dollars worth of spending power in US black population (not to mention time worth spending), yet our historical neighborhoods, business sectors, and life expectancy have continued to dwindle. Something has been lost, and in homage to sankofa: we intend to go back and get it for our people to continue forward. Our enterprise, The B.I.Z. Stoop, strives to disprove the narrative that the only way will "make it out" is to uproot from our people - and embodies the spirit of "making it through" with cooperative economics.

 

BIZ Stoop, Black Intergenerational Zeal Stoop is a premier social enterprise built for and by millennials. Our vision is to exponentially increase the life expectancy of Black youth beyond the age of 25 years - by way of access. We realign individuals with healthier visions of self using holistic approaches to wellness - shifting the boundaries that circumscribe our environment.

 

Our mission is to retain high opportunity youth from Oakland, and streamline them into prospective career paths. Our cohort members are sponsored to complete an 18-week,  three phase experiential learning module(s), in which we: 1) address the roots of fatalism; 2) shift the narratives that commonly refer to our experiences; 3) and earn our keep by pursuing financial opportunities that suit our interest & pay a living wage.

 

Between cohorts, our founders and protege team conduct participatory market research via the Recommendation Repository(s), where our collective voice responds to the establishments that govern our (financial) ecosystem: expanding concepts of worth, skills gap, risk-taking, and transformative social impact.

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