The Dallas Foundation, the first community foundation in Texas, has selected the winner of this year's prestigious Pegasus Prize.
The $50,000 award is going to Seeds 2 STEM, a Southern Dallas nonprofit that helps high school students to become workplace-ready using an on-demand, app-based solution.
The Pegasus Prize is a $50K social innovation grant and the premier award granted to nonprofit organizations, for-profit organizations with a charitable purpose and hybrid organizations applying innovative approaches to addressing community needs.
Over the years, it has been an early investor in significant, life-changing organizations including Bonton Farms, After8toEducate, Yoga N Da Hood, 2S Industries and FreeWorld.
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The Pegasus Prize seeks out organizations that are applying faster, cost-effective, and data-driven ways to tackle ongoing problems in Dallas County.
“The intention of the Pegasus Prize is to reward and support tackling our community’s biggest problems with fresh ideas,” said Drexell Owusu, Chief Impact Officer of The Dallas Foundation. “With the development of its Youth Hub, which will equip high school students with the interpersonal and communication skills most employers expect from their employees, Seeds 2 STEM is leading the way in allowing young people to reach higher earning potential in their chosen or STEM-based careers.”
Branden Williams, CEO of Seeds 2 STEM, says that setting high school students up for success in their earliest employment opportunities paves the way for earning a livable wage, career advancement, and ultimately sets them on a path to financial freedom.
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Youth Hub will provide a foundational career readiness solution that aims to help young adults build necessary skills and commonly expected workplace traits, including soft skills, financial literacy, reading comprehension, and data analytics.
“Receiving the Pegasus Prize last night was a dream come true for our organization and our team is grateful to have a symbolic stamp of approval from an organization as highly regarded as The Dallas Foundation,” Williams says. “Watching our mission come to life with the people we serve has been life-changing for myself and our staff. This grant from The Dallas Foundation will directly impact our mission and allow our organization to further position the students we work with to successfully pursue their career goals in the STEM field.”
The Pegasus Prize also awarded two additional grants of $10K each to two other nonprofits that were finalists:
- Kosmos Arts & Tech’s Switch Workshop engages young adults in a reflective, dynamic and creativity-driven workshop to enable them to switch their mindset into a success mindset.
- Project Lorenzo’s Skilled Jobs Program lifts individuals out of homeless shelters and low-wage jobs, providing them with the skills and confidence to become self-sufficient.
For more information about The Dallas Foundation and the Pegasus Prize, click here.
