Best Buy announced today a campaign that will highlight teens from around the country who participate in the company’s Teen Tech Centers, a network of year-round programs designed to teach technology skills to youth living in underserved communities. This effort is part of a previously announced $20 million grant to the Best Buy Foundation to build out more than 60 of these centers and fund non-profit partners across the U.S., with the goal of aiding more than 1 million teens each year by 2020.
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Naje is one of the students who attend the Best Buy Teen Tech Center at Hope Community Center in Minneapolis, sharing their experiences in videos as the centerpiece of a national paid media campaign launching this week. (Photo: Business Wire)
The awareness campaign focuses initially on three teens living in North Minneapolis, home to one of the country’s largest academic achievement gaps. Each of these teens wrote and stars in their own spoken word video intended to highlight their story and the skills they have learned since enrolling in their local Teen Tech Center. Directed by award-winning director A.V. Rockwell, the videos will appear across a range of owned and paid channels and represent the first time Best Buy has publicized its work with teens from underserved communities through Teen Tech Centers that will be operating in 60 cities by 2020.
“We believe it’s an important responsibility to help cultivate the next generation of inventors, engineers, developers, designers and entrepreneurs. When we support our young people, we also make a vital investment in the future of our communities, families, employees and business,” said Andrea Wood, head of social impact for Best Buy. “Our awareness campaign gives these inspiring teens the opportunity to share their stories, and highlights community efforts that we know our customers and employees care about.”
Best Buy has an ambitious goal to prepare 1 million youth annually for tech-reliant jobs by 2020. The company and its partners are making progress toward achieving this goal by:
Details about Best Buy’s community programs, partnerships and other tech education initiatives, can be found in the company’s FY18 Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Report.
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Best Buy
Paula Baldwin, 612-231-5146
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