• Equity is traditionally understood as a financial term which is the value of the items you own.

• Equity also carries a forgotten principle that every individual deserves access to the same opportunities, free from barriers that have nothing to do with ability or ambition.

Having an opportunity that is equal for all, but carries a hidden barrier such as financial entry, group affiliation, transportation methods, and material needs are all examples of Inequity.

• Summer: Work does not stop for households that cannot afford to. While children from well-resourced families spend those months traveling, exploring, and building memories, children from lower-income households often spend them inside not by choice, but by circumstance and because of this they may begin to pick up bad habits and social tendencies. They’ll return to school in the fall and sit quietly and listen to stories of their peers, share stories of adventures and not be able to join in the conversation allowing their financial reality to become a part of their identity.

• High School: Meaningful personal development and career guidance flows generously to students in well-funded schools. For underfunded schools only the students who excel academically will get the same treatment and when those students struggle, resources follow. The high schooler struggling to balance school and personal life will not get that same treatment they will often go unheard leaving them to continue to progress into their adulthood following this same struggle and the world will continue to move on without them.

• College: the opportunity to attend college exists for everyone in theory, but the realities of tuition, housing, cost of living, and personal circumstances quietly determine which college to attend, whether college is an option, and ultimately what degree becomes possible. The opportunity is equal, the access is not.

• No young person at the beginning of their life should have their potential capped by circumstances outside their control.

• BackYardEquity is more than a program, it is a system that will dismantle the barriers that prevent opportunity for the current generation of young people, and for the generation that follows.

• Our work is structured across three deliberate phases, each designed to build upon the last, creating a sustained and compounding impact that extends far beyond a single summer, a single year, or a single family.

• Eliminate Inequity and Create Equity

• We are BackYardEquity and we’ll make it happen.