It's Better than Ice Cream nonprofit offering kids a way to escape youth violence
ATLANTA - With about one month left in the school year for students across metro Atlanta, many are concerned about keeping kids safe this summer. A local nonprofit is trying to get the city’s youth off the street and into entrepreneurship.
The owners of Glacier’s Ice on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive are answering Mayor Andre Dickens call for a "Year of Youth" by giving students a more productive outlet this summer—a job that teaches them how to run their own business.
"I think what’s causing this elevated crime is just lack of resources," Executive Director Ian Elmore-Moore told Fox 5.
Elmore-Moore, a Morehouse graduate, told Fox 5 the youth entrepreneurship program he started two years ago offers tutoring, mentorship opportunities and a way for kids to make some extra money.
"We can use this building as an after school hub…we’ve got chessboards, we’ve got wifi."
The two-year program is growing to meet the need for a way to prevent youth gun violence after 85 children and teens were shot in killed in the city last year.
"We gotta put money in our kids pockets, but we’ve got to be strategic in how we do it, we’ve got to mentor them to receive that incentive," he said. "They’re gravitating to what we’re teaching them which is leadership and character development."
In year one of the program, students focus on working inside the shop. In year two, they’re taught how to run the business itself.
"They become owner operators and they get to share a percentage of the profits," Elmore-Moore explained.
Tremain Hutchinson is one of eight students in the current co-hort entering his second year. He told Fox 5 he’s grateful for the opportunity to be a Glacier boy.
"It’s important because they can really teach me a lot of stuff and they have," he said.
Elmore-Moore says the program will open a second cohort next month with another 8 spots available. For more information on the nonprofit and how to get involved, you can click here.