Project Sahara

Our Mission

Coal City USA’s mission is to help strengthen and grow families and communities through service. We offer a wide range of services & resources to the poor, homeless, low & middle income and we provide a safe, nurturing environment where teens and their families are strengthened, empowered and equipped with the tools they need to live successful and healthy lives.

Project Description

Coal City USA (CCU) is expanding its existing youth outreach efforts during the coronavirus pandemic through Project SAHARA (Serving, Advocating, Harnessing, and Restoration for All Youth). Project Sahara is a collective impact and research-informed youth development initiative designed to assist youth in identity development through health and education initiatives aimed at building positive self-image and relationships while planning for the future. CCU led a cross-sector project committed to building a seamlessly integrated opportunity ecosystem that ensures young people can easily get from wherever they are to wherever they want to be. Through our unique 12-week structured courses and post-course monthly structured engagement activities, we invest in participating youth through teaching tangible life skills and healthy future-forward habits while also exposing youth to Nigerian/African culture. CCU’s namesake is a tribute to Enugu, Nigeria, nicknamed Coal City, and our desire to promote the interconnectedness and contributions present between American and Nigerian/African culture.

Our Approach

Our core course curriculum focuses on self-expression and identity formation, life skills, and future planning in tandem with cultural exploration. Course activities include visual art projects and praise poems to build youth self-esteem, financial literacy workshops, communication skills building, career exploration/networking, and workshops on long vs. short term thinking, mentorship, and youth-led projects. Our network of Nigerian/African community volunteers will facilitate culturally infused classes with support provided by a hired part-time project coordinator supervised by our leadership team and our President, Dr. Kester Ezuma. In addition to weekly courses, youth are eligible to be connected with our other community initiatives, including cultural events (temporarily conducted virtually) and service projects, including our medical mission services. After a cohort completes the twelve-week course, they transition to alumni status and may attend our monthly engagement events to stay connected with the Project Sahara community. Monthly activities are planned and directed in collaboration with youth giving participants a chance to utilize their learned leadership skills.

Coal City USA recognizes that creating an impact on a youth’s life requires more than weekly engagement and monthly follow-up activities. It takes a village to support youth success. CCU has created a network of supportive services to assist youth participants in completing the curriculum and gaining a life-long foundation for success. This support includes budget line items dedicated to helping youth with securing reliable internet access and equipment for remote meetings, paid stipends as a reward for program completion, and exposure to possible mentors and role models through our guest speakers.

In our experience, our youth may have unanticipated needs affecting their participation, so we developed a flex supportive services budget to assist participants in cases of financial hardship.

Infact, we aim at partnering with like-minded businesses and community-based organizations to build this new approach to youth development and economic mobility. More than four million young people, or one in seven, are disconnected from our economy. Most of these young people are looking for a job or opportunity to give them a sense of purpose and start them on their path to success but are lacking the supports and skills required to secure and thrive in a job. Through project SAHARA initiative, we forge unique partnerships and engage in clear pathways in preparing these young people for gainful employment. By focusing on both traditional and innovative programs such as mentorship, job readiness and community connections, CCU helps close the opportunity gap for these young people so they, in turn, can build communities and families that prosper into the next generation.

Population Served

Our target population is youth ages 14-24 from the Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lennox, Torrance, and Gardena SouthBay area. This area has been a focus of our work since CCU’s inception, and Project Sahara is an extension of that commitment. We will be using the community-based contacts of our leadership team to tap our school and community center contacts to recruit youth. Designated service providers will complete a referral form for review by our leadership team, who will then direct our project coordinator to reach out to potential participants to establish a connection and assess commitment level. Participants will then be provided an application and complete a short interview process. We serve both young men and women and have devised targeted outreach efforts for both gender groups.

Who are Opportunity Youth?

Opportunity Youth are heavily represented in rural areas and small towns. By definition, Opportunity Youth are not in school or working, and only 4% achieve a bachelor’s degree by age 24 compared to 8% of youth who are in school or working. Opportunity Youth experience poverty at higher rates, 44% vs. 16.8% (2014) than youth who are in school or working.

  • 4.6 million youth ages 16-24 were not in school or working in 2019
  • 41% live in a poor household compared to 27% of youth who are in school or working
  • 15% have a disability compared to 5% of youth who are in school or working
  • 7.2% of Asian American youth
  • 10% of White youth
  • 14.3% of Latino youth
  • 18.9 of Black youth
  • 25.4% of Native American youth

Why is Project SAHARA a Gateway?

Coal City USA is so much more than just an organization. It gives you the opportunity to be something bigger. Project SAHARA is a gateway for youth who have become disconnected from school and work, also referred to as “Opportunity Youth or Disconnected Youth”. This presents broad economic and social challenges for entire communities. Most of these young people grew up in poverty. Some of them were part of the foster care system or were involved in the juvenile justice system. Many of them have been homeless at some point in their lives. These are young people who have had little opportunity their entire lives and lack the resources or connections to navigate the education and workforce systems. Therefore, we are determining in helping these young people (generation next) overcome barriers and reach their full potentials.

Financial breakdown

Below is the entire project budget. We are only requesting project funds for supportive services and course-related fees for Project SAHARA participants. We intend for these funds to remove barriers to participant success and act as an investment in their future. No requested funds will directly or indirectly go to staff or volunteers associated with CCU.

  • Participant supplies and equipment (including school and internet access tools)
  • $2,500
  • Participant Stipends for post-course completion ($250 per participant for cohort of 15)
  • $3,750
  • Guest Speaker Panel Honorarium
  • $1000
  • Flex supportive services account (available upon request to the student for documented financial needs)
  • $5000
  • Project Sahara Part-time Coordinator Stipend (compensation for course execution and required planning time)
  • $11,750
  • Field Trip and Meeting space reservation funds
  • $1000
  • Total Requested funds
  • $12,500
  • Total Project Budget
  • $25,000

Tracking Project Success

CCU believes in evidence-based interventions and curriculum, grounded in following what participants say works. We will track project success using pre-program and post-program Likert scale surveys (1-5 rating scale system) for each participant and their parent designed to assess youth’s positive self-image and engagement in planning their future.

The survey will be distributed and collected by leadership without involvement from the project coordinator to maintain the integrity of the results. Success is a demonstrated increase in reported positive outcomes for over 70% of participants. CCU will also complete direct feedback sessions with participating youth to collect the information needed to improve Project SAHARA outcomes.

Together, we can make sure that youths in SouthBay can tap into a community of resilience to know they are not alone for even a single minute. Coal City USA is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization and your gift is tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.

Want to support Coal City USA all year long?