After-School & Saturday Programs
Enrichment Programs
100% free after-school and Saturday programs funded by sponsors, donors, and schools.
About the program
After-school and Saturday enrichment, at no cost to families.
BYL Enrichment Programs extend learning beyond the school day with hands-on after-school and Saturday programs hosted at partner schools and community sites. Each program is led by trained facilitators and grounded in our mission to help students grow, lead, and thrive.
Our enrichment programs are 100% free for students and families, funded by sponsors, donors, and partner schools who believe in investing in the next generation of leaders.
Our enrichment programs.
Three signature programs delivered after school and on Saturdays under BYL Enrichment Programs. Schools choose the program that fits their community.
Kidpreneurs
BYL's youth entrepreneurship program for students ages 10 to 18. Students sketch business models, prototype products, and pitch their ideas on Pitch Day. 70+ kids who pitched across 5 school sites.
View section →Comfort Bear
Teens in the Bronx and Harlem handcraft wooden Comfort Bears with messages of hope, then deliver them to hospitalized youth, building empathy, craftsmanship, and youth leadership.
View section →Financial Literacy
An interactive curriculum that builds money confidence in budgeting, saving, credit, and entrepreneurship. 100+ students reached, 50+ hours of programming, 4 schools served.
View section →01 / Entrepreneurship
Kidpreneurs
Where young minds become founders.
Kidpreneurs is BYL's youth entrepreneurship program for students ages 10-18. Through hands-on activities, students learn how to turn ideas into real businesses, building creativity, planning skills, and the confidence to lead. We meet kids where they already are, then push them somewhere new.
The curriculum runs from ideation and market research through basic finance, branding, and the live pitch day. Along the way, students sketch, role-play, prototype, and present. Every unit is designed to be culturally rooted, age-appropriate, and grounded in the communities our students actually live in.
The goal isn't just a project, it's economic agency. We want students to leave with a working understanding of how a business comes together, and the belief that they can build one themselves.
Six-unit curriculum
What students do
Unit 01
Idea Generation
Brainstorming, problem-spotting, and turning everyday observations into business concepts worth chasing.
Unit 02
Business Model Basics
Customers, value, channels, costs. Students sketch a one-page model for their idea using kid-friendly canvases.
Unit 03
Market Research
Surveys, interviews, and walking the neighborhood. Students test whether anyone actually wants what they're building.
Unit 04
Pricing & Finance
Cost, margin, and how to set a price. Hands-on math through play money, role-play, and real product samples.
Unit 05
Branding & Marketing
Logos, names, packaging, and short-form video. Students design a brand that sounds like them, not a corporation.
Unit 06
Pitch Day
Live pitches in front of mentors, family, and partner judges. Real feedback, real applause, real launch.
From the sessions
Inside a Kidpreneurs session
By the numbers
Building founders, one session at a time
70+
Kids who pitched
Stood up in front of a room and told their story.
5
School sites
Across New York, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.
100%
Free enrichment programs
Funded by sponsors, donors, and schools.
Bring Kidpreneurs to your school
Partner with BYL to bring the Kidpreneurs program to your classrooms, after-school sites, or community center. We'll handle the curriculum, the mentors, and the pitch day, you bring the students.
02 / Service Learning
Comfort Bear
A hands-on service-learning program where students ages 14–18 design, craft, and inscribe Comfort Bears with messages of hope for hospitalized youth.
The Comfort Bear program brings BYL students together in workshops across the Bronx and Harlem to handcraft wooden Comfort Bear cutouts from scratch. Each bear is painted, decorated, and inscribed with original messages of hope and encouragement before being delivered to hospitalized children and youth.
The program is built on the belief that creativity is a form of leadership. Through painting, art, and reflection, students develop project-management skills, peer collaboration, and the kind of communication that turns an idea into a finished object someone else will hold. The result is youth leadership through real, measurable service.
Comfort Bear builds empathy and social-emotional growth alongside artistic and problem-solving ability. Students leave the program with a portfolio of work, a stronger sense of self, and the experience of having directly comforted a peer they may never meet.
In the workshop
Inside Comfort Bear
Photographs from BYL Comfort Bear workshops.
By the numbers
Comfort, in practice
14–18
Students
Age range of student leaders served by the Comfort Bear program.
Dozens
Reach
Teen leaders trained in workshops across the Bronx and Harlem each year.
100+
Bears
Handcrafted Comfort Bears delivered to hospitalized youth with messages of hope.
Multiple
Schools
Title I partner schools host Comfort Bear sessions each program year.
Bring Comfort Bear to your school
Partner with BYL to host a Comfort Bear workshop series for your students. We’ll handle the curriculum, materials, and teaching artists, you bring the leaders-in-training.
03 / Money Skills
Financial Literacy
Teaching students to understand money, build healthy financial habits, and step into adulthood with confidence.
Most students graduate without ever learning how to manage a paycheck, build a budget, or understand how credit works. Our Financial Literacy program is built to change that. We teach K-12 students the fundamentals of personal finance through interactive lessons and an app-based curriculum that turns money into a subject they can actually use.
Sessions cover budgeting, saving, smart spending, the basics of investing, credit, and how income and careers connect. Students don't just memorize definitions, they practice with real-world scenarios that mirror the choices they'll face as young adults.
We frame financial literacy as a foundational life skill and a tool for economic empowerment. When students understand money early, they're better prepared to set goals, avoid debt traps, and build the kind of long-term, generational wealth their families and communities deserve.
Curriculum
What students learn
Six core modules.
Module 01
Budgeting Basics
How to track money in and money out, build a simple monthly budget, and tell the difference between a need and a want.
Module 02
Saving & Goal-Setting
Short-term vs. long-term goals, the power of paying yourself first, and how to grow a savings habit that sticks.
Module 03
Smart Spending
Comparing prices, spotting marketing traps, and learning to make spending decisions that match a student's values and goals.
Module 04
Intro to Credit
What credit is, how a credit score works, and why the choices students make at 18 can follow them for decades.
Module 05
Investing Fundamentals
The basics of stocks, compound growth, and why starting early matters more than starting big when building long-term wealth.
Module 06
Career & Income
Connecting school, skills, and earning potential, plus the basics of paychecks, taxes, and what a first job actually looks like.
In the classroom
From the program
Photos from recent Financial Literacy sessions in New York classrooms.
By the numbers
Building money confidence
100+
Students reached
50+
Hours of programming
4
Schools served
6
Core curriculum modules
Figures reflect cumulative program reach. Updated annually as new schools enroll.
Bring Financial Literacy to your school
We work with Title I schools and community partners across New York to deliver Financial Literacy on-site, with curriculum and materials included.
By the numbers.
3
Signature programs
Comfort Bear, Financial Literacy, and Kidpreneurs.
After-School
& Saturday
Program formats
Programs run after school and on Saturdays at partner sites.
100%
Free for students
Funded by sponsors, donors, and schools.
Title I
Focused
Programs prioritize schools and students who need it most.
Bring Enrichment Programs to your school.
Partner with BYL to bring student-centered, mission-driven enrichment to your community. Schools, administrators, and families, we'd love to talk.
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