TBF-Idenity---Updated---8-20---Horizontal-(1)

Donate

Tarik Black Foundation
is Taking Back The Future.

Our mission is to elevate understanding in the areas of Global Diversity, Wealth Creation, Healthy Habits, and the Impact of Technology by providing youth access to practical information through exposure to the real world.

Here is why we focus on Healthy Habits, Wealth Creation, Global Diversity and Technology Impact

Healthy Habits

The leading causes of illnesses and early death in the United States are mostly preventable. That is why starting healthy habits during developmental years is key to lifelong wellness. This includes taking care of mental and emotional health needs. With depression being a leading cause of illness and disability for adolescents, every aspect of health is important to maintaining a good quality of life.

We consider the future as we create programs. Young people receive information and techniques to help them move, eat, and face challenges in ways that prevent physical, emotional and mental issues later in life. Camps for early teens and internship programs for older teens are designed in ways that teach how choices today positively or negatively affect physical, mental and emotional wellness for life. With the knowledge they receive about achieving and maintaining wellness, their way of thinking about health is elevated.

We focus on teaching teens healthy habits today to help ensure the next generation of adults maintain wellness for life.

Wealth Creation

According to a recent American Payroll Association report, nearly 69 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. One delayed paycheck for many people results in financial hardship.

Financial security or insecurity starts with decisions made early in life. This is why we feel it is important to focus on wealth creation. Through sessions with financial experts and successful people, we elevate how youth think about making, spending, managing and investing money.

Inspiring young people to start wealthy habits and make informed money decisions now, will impact the financial future of generations to come. This includes advocating they make smart choices about their academic and social endeavors.

Young people learn the keys to entrepreneurship, the benefits in multiple revenue streams and the peace of mind having passive income brings during our camps and internship programs.

We focus on teaching young people how to create wealth because living paycheck to paycheck is no fun. However, living wealthy pays big dividends in the future.

Global Diversity

For young people living in countries where borders connect to other countries, traveling from country to country is as easy as a day trip by train. However, traveling from country to country is not that convenient if you live in the United States. With increasing globalization, finding ways to offer young people in the U. S. global access and cultural exposure is critical to their future success.

This is why a focus for us is global education. We want to offer young people, particularly in Memphis, the chance to meet and work with people in other parts of the world. Our International Social Justice Entrepreneurship project and our sponsorship of the Global Sports Tech Youth Challenge are two examples.

Tarik Black Foundation launched these two virtual programs as part of Taking Back The Future to give interns in the Memphis Ambassadors Program (MAP) and tech students studying at CodeCrew, also in Memphis, the chance to meet and work with students in Tel Aviv and other countries.

Our summer campers also participate in global activities including virtual fieldtrips where they are immersed in diverse stories that teach cultural traditions, beliefs and lifestyles. The exposure helps young campers understand, appreciate and celebrate diversity globally and in their own communities.

We focus on international diversity because of our growing global interconnectivity and increasing need for cultural empathy. Forming a global mindset now will lead to having future adults prepared to positively change the world.

Technology Impact

The world is rapidly growing more technology driven. The COVID-19 pandemic sped up this development exponentially. The pandemic also highlighted what many knew already about the digital divide between the advantaged and disadvantaged.

Even people accustomed to using technology, struggled with transitioning face-to-face meetings and classrooms to online activities. Across the world we experienced technology’s ability to make us resilient. The pandemic also made us more aware of the need to be comfortable using technology.

Our goal with Taking Back The Future programs is to elevate how young people think about technology. Whether they are planning a tech career or not, anxieties about working with technology will result in being left behind.

In 2020 Tarik Black Foundation donated laptops to disadvantaged young people so they could keep up with classwork. Later in the year, we gave some Memphis tech students access to our global partners. The outcome was the launch of the Global Sports Tech Youth Challenge.

We focus on technology impact because the world is rapidly developing innovations. How swiftly young people grasp and adapt to tech advances will contribute to shaping their future.