MidCity Excellence awarded $50,000 donation to expand ‘Kidz Biz,’ a youth workforce development program

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (News-Press NOW) -- A local Midtown youth academy will take its new workforce readiness program to the next level with the help of a donation from Buchanan County on Friday.

Buchanan County Commissioners approved a $50,000 donation during their regular Friday meeting to help support MidCity Excellence and its new "Kids Biz" youth workforce initiative, a burgeoning program offering hands-on entrepreneurship opportunities to develop kids into career-ready individuals and business people.

With professionals, community mentors and college students working alongside them, kids within the program are able to gain valuable real-world business experience and sharpen their skills in financial planning and marketing -- among other areas -- using marketing-based principles to train in food and product presentation.

"The youth are learning how to become entrepreneurs, how to market a product, save and manage money into creative wealth projects. They will be able to translate these into business skills into the real world, into real markets and in many different spaces," said Kimberly Warren, founder and CEO of MidCity Excellence. "Our number one goal is to have a positive and engaging program for teenagers. I think it's important that kids have an outlet and don't get bored because that can potentially lead to risky behaviors."

Along the way, students also learn about the importance of credit, saving, budgeting, investing, and long-term wealth creation.

With the help of a "Kids Biz" food truck operated by MCE, students -- many of them teenagers -- got the taste of working in a real business setting Friday, helping take orders, prepare food and hone in on critical skills like problem solving, communication, teamwork and conflict resolution.

MCE student Leilani Bell has benefitted greatly from the program by being able to prepare food at different events the truck goes to, learning about responsibility when managing others. She also believes her communication skills have improved, calling it an "outlet" for her and many others.

"I feel like the program has helped me socialize and communicate with others," she said. "Running the food truck, taking orders, and communicating with my peers as were serving people their food are some of the things I've gotten to do. These type of activities keep us connected with each other and lessen our time being online. We feel motivated in the work that we do."

MidCity Excellence's next event will be their 12th annual MLK Jr. Solutions Summit, which is set for Monday, Jan. 19, at 11 a.m. inside the Word of Life Church located at 3902 NE Riverside Road.