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Strategic Overview and Plan

Struggle Is Your Success (S.I.Y.S) is an innovative non-profit organization dedicated to providing tangible entrepreneurial skills and mindset development that inspires, guides and motivate Youth from diverse backgrounds to discover and pursue their passions in life and overcome their challenges through exciting programs and workshops so that they can become self-sustaining members of our community and achieve success in their lives.

Our Mission:
Our mission at Struggle is Your Success is to empower youth from diverse backgrounds in providing them with the skills, training, and guidance they need to overcome their challenges and pursue their passions in life. Through innovative and high-quality entrepreneurial and leadership-focused programs and workshops, we aim to inspire, guide, and motivate these young people, helping them to become self-sustaining members of our community who can achieve success in their personal and professional lives.

Our Vision:
We believe that every young person has the potential to achieve great things, regardless of their background or circumstances. By giving them the tools they need to succeed, we hope to create a brighter future for our community, where everyone has the opportunity to reach their full potential. With Struggle is Your Success, we are committed to building a better tomorrow, one youth at a time.

Our Core Values:
Lead with passion
Always show compassion and empathy
Encourage and support ideas
Act with courage and confidence to challenge the status quo
Operate authentically, with honesty and integrity
Creating a culture of belonging where everyone feels welcome and accepted

What we offer:
High quality Youth entrepreneurship programs
Entrepreneurial Mentorship
Entrepreneurship Workshops
Leadership tools and training
Life management tools and resources
Networking opportunities
Digital and Print resources for Youth

Who we serve:
Bipoc, – Black, Indigenous, and people of color and racialized and marginalized youth
Ages 14-21
Youth from diverse backgrounds (youth with various abilities, from different races, sexual orientation, culture and religions).
Indigenous Youth
NEET status Youth
Youth in care
Currently Serving Calgary Region

Value Proposition:
SIYS offers a unique value proposition to local and national youth who lack confidence in themselves, lack opportunities, struggle with traditional learning systems and are struggling to find direction and purpose in their life. SIYS helps struggling youth adopt an entrepreneurial mindset through programs, workshops and mentorship opportunities that are not readily available in the current education system or afterschool programs. SIYS works with experienced entrepreneurs, founders and leaders to inspire, guide and motivate youth towards discovering their passions and reaching their full potential in the modern landscape.

Desired outcomes:
The ultimate desired outcome for SIYS is to help youth find success, confidence, hope in their future careers and life, and to unearth their full potential. We want Youth in our communities to have the belief, coupled with the skills to realize their hopes and dreams and become contributing and valuable members of our society. Our outcomes are based on the entrepreneurial mindset model:

Be curious – question everything and seek new creative ways of learning and doing
Growth oriented – discover and recognize potential and always be willing to learn and grown
Show courage – don’t be afraid to try new things and step out of your comfort zone
Resilience – learn to accept and learn through failure and struggles. Diamonds are created through pressure
Stay alert and vigilant – look for opportunities, observe and identify areas that you can innovate or solve a problem
Problem solving – be solution oriented and look for creative ways to solve problems and make people’s lives easier
Be positive – believe in yourself and be confident in your ability to overcome problems and create impact
Tactfulness – always be ready to pivot and be tactful in tough situations where you have to change quickly
Empathy – think about other people’s needs, problems and how you can make their lives better or create an impact
Adaptability – Always be willing to change your ideas, beliefs, actions to achieve your ultimate goal. Challenges will arise and you may need to adapt

A breakdown of our desired outcomes is as follows:
Creativity
Ideation
Determining values and personal brand (self discovery)
Identifying personal strengths
Vision and goal setting
Critical thinking and problem solving skills
Overcoming failure
Overcoming internal and external challenges
Teamwork
Networking skills
Design thinking
Prototyping
Market research / analysis
Opportunity analysis
Logo creation / Graphic design
Pitching and public speaking

Strategic Priorities:
Sustainability of the SIYS program locally, regionally and nationally. (Dream it, Build it, Plan it)
Capacity building for the SIYS program (current capacity is 3 cohorts a week, with one facilitator)
Regional and national expansion of the program
Development of additional offerings from single program to multiple programs.
Development of mentorship programs
Development of a digital learning platform to increase accessibility to programs.
Increasing operational capabilities by attracting and retaining top talent in the areas of, marketing, HR, curriculum development and operations, Hiring part Facilitators to deliver program
Securing a dedicated space which acts as a head quarter for SIYS and has the ability to host our programs

Our Direction:
Phase 1: 2020-2022 – Startup Ideation
Phase 2: 2022- 2023 – Proof of concept in partnership with Trellis Society and SBCCI  -SUPPORTING BLACK CANADIAN COMMUNITIES INITIATIVE  (Funded by SBCCI and Calgary Foundation)
Phase 3: 2023-2028 – Expansion – build Capacity, accessibility and sustainability
Website redevelopment and upgrades
Youth digital and print magazine
Content creation
Workshops – digital and in-person
Develop new programs
Travel – business development
Project management, consultation and facilitation

Goals / Projects:
Develop a new program that is an extension to Dream it, Plan it, build it and is a sustainable part of our program offering. This program will have a tangible and measurable outcome attached to it that we will be able to show our potential funders.
Digitize our offerings by creating a platform to increase accessibility to our programs and resources.
Sustain our operations through creating a proper corporate structure with defined roles, board governance, enhance operational capacity and capabilities through hiring and finding a space to operate from.