THIS IS AWESOME! I love what you guys do! I actually co-founded an organization (www.relifeinc.org) that empowers inner city disconnected youth in Harlem NYC through entrepreneurship and education. I have about 10 years of research on youth development and engagement, especially on ho to curb disconnection and strongly feel that entrepreneurship with sound education is that vehicle that could help turn things around. In fact, all our programs are themed around entrepreneurship, so I am very excited and interested in what PEP represents.
Based on our new pilot program The URBN Youth StartUP, which just ended last month, there are several tips I could give. We spent 12 hours a week with the students (4 days per week, covering concepts and fundamentals of entrepreneurship, basic life and soft skills, financial literacy and micro-finance and innovation/tech day) in addition to having 2 mentors per student (one entrepreneur and one professional). These alongside implementing our HEROES Model for effective youth development (heroesmodel.com) helped us have a successful pilot.
Let me know if you are interested, Id love to talk more.
Cheers