Brooks Bunch Academies
Background
Derrick Brooks Charities believes deeply in throwing the rope back to help pull our youth into an educated, empowered and emboldened future. One of the ways we do this is through our Brooks Bunch program. This program impacts the lives of youth throughout the Tampa Bay area by showing them there is more to this world than what is inside their community.
The idea for The Brooks Bunch program came to Derrick Brooks when he was a rookie in his career. He visited Boys & Girls Clubs as a way to encourage and motivate children to succeed. On one visit, a young girl spoke to him. The way she spoke opened his eyes to a harsh reality. Some of these young children have not even experienced many of the things that average Americans take for granted.
This idea born from a small conversation developed into a program which includes a classroom element, a panel presentation, and behavior and grade assessments. Also included in this are trips around the country and globe in order to expose them to a world that’s big and full of options and opportunities. In order to be given access to these opportunities, The Brooks Bunch must earn their way through the program. Past trips have included: Fort Lauderdale, Chicago, New York, Tallahassee, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Cincinnati, Phoenix, San Francisco, Boston, Philadelphia and South Africa.
The Brooks Bunch Academy has had over 200 students enrolled with 190 of them becoming certified in financial literacy and qualifying to attend the one week Brooks Bunch Educational Field Trip.
Brooks Bunch Business Academy
The purpose of the Brooks Bunch Business Academy is to empower students to make sound financial and business decisions and prepare them for a future of financial success and security. BBBA also introduces students to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship and building their own version of “tomorrow” by helping students learn what it means to be an entrepreneur, from creating a business plan to performing market research. It was our desire to create a business & financial literacy program that would also focus on college readiness, community service, career exposure, and entrepreneurship and life skills.
Fifth Third Bank, Derrick Brooks Charities and Everfi have collaborated in a personal finance and entrepreneurship program presented by Everfi. With this partnership, we hope to send a message to high school students that financial capability is an increasingly important skill, and this course builds that in a fun and engaging way.
Derrick Brooks Charities in partnership with Fifth Third Bank, and Brooks DeBartolo Collegiate High School will be holding these financial literacy courses after school each week at Brooks DeBartolo. This class is available to 35 high school students per school year.
Derrick Brooks Charities and Fifth Third Back in partnership, offers students the opportunity to learn about:
- Save money and build wealth
- Negotiate great deals as an entrepreneur
- Budget creation, categorization and learning to manage debt
- Participate in career training/exposure
- Take part in educational field trips
- How the Federal Reserve System works
- Financing Higher Education
- Take part in community service projects and team building exercises
- Be exposed to small and large business owners
At the conclusion of the program, students will be able to apply financial skills & knowledge to real-world situations at 3 levels: High School, College, and Post-College. We look forward to another successful year with this program and thank you again to our partners, EverFi and Fifth Third Bank.
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