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They came to dance, party, and bank. That's right, bank. In an unusual partnership, D2D Promotions joined forces with Wainwright Bank to host a hip-hop dance cruise for 250 inner-city teenagers Thursday night.
This event was the first in an expected series of events designed to help bring the bank's message of financial empowerment to urban youth.
The crew of the boat apprehensively donned hearing protection as the kids boarded and the music started blaring. They came in groups, each group of friends easily identified as belonging together by their similar clothes.
One group of friends wore red tank shirts and baseball caps, another group was tied together by their white belts and jeans. The boys wore their Snoop Doggy tee shirts, and, of course, the ubiquitous baggy jeans.
"We hope that they appreciate a fun time," Aisha Yasin, the founder of D2D Promotions, said as she watched the kids board, "that they have fun and they get to meet someone that can teach them something."
That someone was the community development officer from Wainwright Bank. Leaving the suit and tie behind the casually-dressed banker, albeit a bit older than the kids, blended in and talked to them one-on-one about the importance of saving instead of spending. Curious, the kids approached, tentatively at first, and wanted to know why a banker would come into this type of environment.
They asked why they needed a savings account now, and listened as the importance of putting money in a bank was explained to them in terms that they could relate to. Mainly they were interested in how they could benefit from the banking system.
Talking to the community development officer, they were eager to learn more, some asking why they didn't learn this in school.
D2D Promotions was started two years ago by Yasin after she received her MBA from Simmons College. Not much older than the youth that she targets, Yasin, a young looking "twenty-something" with shoulder-length tight braids, wanted to use her education and skills to give something back to the young urban community that she had been a part of not so long ago. One of the goals of D2D, according to Yasin, "is to keep kids off the streets, especially in the evening hours. We try to provide safe, fun, entertainment for kids under twenty."
The operation is simple: D2D employs 40 teenagers, area youth who act as street teams that go around their neighborhoods promoting D2D events, typically dance parties and concerts. By using peer promotion, Yasin explains, "kids are responsible for their own fun, it isn't given to them."
Ralfy, a member of the street team, a tall twenty-year old Hispanic with a shy smile and a twinkle in his eye, is planning to attend college in the fall, hopefully to study journalism after being inspired by the Spiderman movie.
"I needed something to do for the summer," Ralfy explained. "We go around with fliers and promote the events and our sponsors. We get kids off the street; try to show them something positive. It's not going to make a huge change, but it's a start. When I was 16 there was nothing like this. I was out getting in trouble. It's tough being a teenager these days."
Previous corporate sponsors for these events have been retail-oriented. But Yasin is trying to change that. Now that D2D Promotions has the kids' attention, they are hoping to combine parties with education. She is looking for other sponsors that will host workshops in conjunction with entertainment events.
"Most of these kids are entrepreneurs," Yasin said with a quick smile. "We want to teach them so they can take their natural skills and put them to use in a positive way."
As the cruise came to an end, Yasin explained to the bank representative that one way to gauge whether the kids paid attention or not was to look at the street on the way out. If the bank's handouts were littering the sidewalks, the message didn't get through. The streets were clean. ^ back to top ^
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