The over-arching goal for the Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center, is to help each youth involved in our programs graduate from high school and to go on to a post-secondary experience of higher education or training. The need for help is painfully obvious. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of all seniors enrolled in Minneapolis Public Schools failed to graduate high school in 2006 (Minneapolis Public School Assessment 2005/06). The statistics for poverty level minority students, our kids, is even more distressing. In the Minneapolis Public Schools, 50 percent of African American, 60 percent of Native American and 68 percent of Hispanic students fail to receive their high school diplomas. But our objective isn’t diplomas per se. Ultimately we need to raise up a new generation of urban leaders who are well-educated, who are skilled in today’s technologies, who are prepared for vocational pursuits, who are morally sound, and who have the ability and desire to transform a broken community within a city – despite its prosperity and stature – that is also marked by disparity and divide.

The Colin Powell Youth Leadership Center is being built in partnership with the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School founded and sponsored by the Society of Jesus (a Catholic order of priests and brothers known as the Jesuits). The school will serve low-income families of any faith or culture who desire a religiously supportive, Christian value-centered, education for their children. Jesuit schools strive to educate the whole person, challenging each student to reach his or her fullest potential as a well-rounded individual who is intellectually competent, open to growth, religious, loving, and committed to doing justice in generous service to the people of God.

The high school and Urban Ventures will share the new 160,000 square-foot Colin Powell Leadership Center under construction by Ryan Companies at East Lake Street and 4th Avenue in South Minneapolis.

Business sponsors include: Best Buy Corporation, Allina Hospitals, Braun Intertec, Deloitte & Touche LLP, Dorsey & Whitney LLP, Fallon Worldwide, Gelco Information Systems, General Mills, GME Consultants, Great Clips Inc., KPMG, Lindquist & Vennum LLP, OPUS Corporation, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi, RSM McGladrey, Ryan Companies, SuperValu, TCF Financial Corporation, USBank, and Wells Fargo.