OUR MISSION
LYFT Learning is a social enterprise dedicated to using online education and digital sharing as powerful tools for achieving social justice.
Our first product, Life Skills Reimagined, is a learner-centric, online platform revolutionizing life skills education for youth and adults working towards self-sufficiency.
We bring cost-effective, innovative, tools and resources to equip "boots on the ground" groups addressing social justice issues. The use of online education and the facilitation of digital sharing can help organizations "build once," share and reuse more effectively.
We also have created short-term internships and work opportunities for youth transitioning from foster care.
The idea started through under a mango tree while on a mission trip to Haiti where there are more NGOs per capita than anywhere else in the world. Many are trying to do similar programs but often don't even know each other exist, let alone collaborate. Upon returning and spending time understanding the foster care situation in the US, it became apparent that the US has many of the same challenges.
INSPIRED BY THE FOSTER CARE CRISIS
It's time to get real. Hundreds of thousands of kids are in foster care. Kids who look just like yours and mine have lost their families, their stability and sometimes even their hope. It's not their fault, yet every day they have to work to overcome their history and try to get a grasp on their future.
If you read the statistics, then you know what reality looks like. Many skills that aid the transition to adulthood are "caught" not "taught." They are simply learned from watching our caregivers "do life." When you don't have a consistent caregiver who takes the time to share ... well, that doesn't work so hot.
LYFT Learning is designed to be a bridge for foster youth by creating careers for youth moving into adulthood. We are a for-profit business that just works a little differently - we have a mission to help kids succeed. We try to have a little more grace and explain the unspoken rules of working. We have candid conversations about everything you can imagine. We make sure our team members are connected to "a village" of supporting people and organizations. We give technical and professional skills, but also access to how a company is run and involvement in decision making.
Those things don't drive profitability, but big profits aren't the point.
