GARY: Next on "Start Up," we head to Trenton, New Jersey, to meet up with Ayana Abdul-Raheem, the founder of Timbuk2 Academy, a private, independent institution that offers high-quality holistic arts and education for girls and young ladies ages 9 to 22.

All of this and more is next on "Start Up."

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♪ My name is Gary Bredow.

I'm a documentary filmmaker and an entrepreneur.

As the country continues to recover, small business owners everywhere are doing all they can to keep their dream alive.

So we set out for our tenth consecutive season to talk with a wide range of diverse business owners to better understand how they've learned to adapt, innovate, and even completely reinvent themselves.

♪ This is "Start Up."

♪ A private academy is a school that is not controlled or funded by the government.

Private academies decide which students to admit and which programs or classes to offer.

Funding for private academies generally come from the students' tuition, individual donors, and funding from fiscal sponsors.

Private academies are often more expensive than other schools, however, they offer a specific specialized curriculum.

Today I'm heading to Trenton, New Jersey, to meet up with Ayana Abdul-Raheem, the founder of Timbuk2 Academy.

From what I know, Ayana's parents originally opened Timbuktu when she was a child, but in 2020, Ayana reimagined the academy, opened the doors, and is on a mission to help guide as many young women as possible in the Trenton, New Jersey, area.

I can't wait to learn more.

♪ What is it like growing up in Trenton?

AYANA: It's a very small town.

You could literally walk from each section in probably 15 minutes.

GARY: Okay.

AYANA: Rough.

This is a rough town.

It's been this way since I was a little girl.

A lot of crime.

There's a lot of poverty.

When I was growing up here, there was more of a rich culture and more of community.

There was more of a sense of community here.

We grew up right here in this house, actually.

GARY: In this house?

AYANA: Yes, we grew up in this house.

This downstairs portion is where my parents had a child care center, which leads to Timbuktu Academy.

They turned this portion of our home into a child care center because they saw a need in our community for children, particularly children, black children that are running up and down the streets, and families, to support families that wanted to have a quality place to send their children and didn't want to have to go outside of their community to do that.

So they stepped up and they did it.

GARY: What did that mean to you as a kid, seeing that?

AYANA: Now that I'm older and just being able to really reflect from an adult perspective, what they did was just, they were crazy.

GARY: But awesome.

In the best way.

AYANA: It was, like, insane.

I mean, the level of sacrifice that...

It's six of us.

So how, I don't know how they did it.

GARY: What did you end up doing after you graduated?

AYANA: I ended up in law enforcement.

[laughing] GARY: Okay.

AYANA: Crazy story.

GARY: All these roundabout paths that we take, right?

AYANA: That's crazy.

It's so weird.

I'm like, "How did I end up here?"

But when you hear law enforcement and you hear juveniles, you think, "Oh, it's the kids running around shooting people, like, these are really bad kids."

But when I got in there, I realized that these were the same kids that I worked with in the classroom.

These were the same kids that I taught arts and crafts to.

These are the same kids.

So I was okay with it because I was assigned to the youth section.

GARY: How long did you work with the police?

AYANA: For about 11, 12, 11 years.

I have a special place in my heart for system-involved girls, and I probably would have never had that had I not worked at the police department.

We would probably, Timbuk2 would probably not have programs for girls if I had not had that experience.

I didn't plan to do this.

I didn't plan to have youth programs at all.

I guess there was other plans for me.

And I had the knowledge and I have the passion and the drive to work with children.

So I did it.

And I was able to save a lot of young ladies here in the city of Trenton by just being there, right, and being consistent with what I'm doing and what we're doing here at Timbuk2 Academy to make sure that they're getting the things that they need to thrive in this world wherever they go.

GARY: What is Timbuk2 Academy?

AYANA: I like to call Timbuk2 Academy a legacy place of learning.

It is an institution for learning.

Um, it was founded originally, my parents ran the Timbuktu Academy.

I decided to revamp Timbuk2 Academy.

I do spell it with the number two.

That's why I spell it with the two, because I'm the second generation, continuing the business.

And I've expanded our mission and our vision.

So we provide early childhood learning services for young children, and we also provide personal and spiritual development programs for girls and young women.

We concentrate here on providing services for systems-involved girls.

And that influence came from me working within the system with system-involved girls.

And that's girls who are juvenile females, girls who are in foster care, girls who have been in and out of, like, residential treatment facilities.

Those are all system-involved girls.

They need a lot of support.

And so I decided that I was going to make sure that I had a space and a place for our girls to come to get services.

GARY: And you have an inside knowledge from working for 12 years in that juvenile division.

I'm sure that gives you a really good understanding about the mindset and what some of these girls actually need to be successful in life, right?

AYANA: Yes.

I was able to develop models specifically to address the needs of system-involved girls.

So our programs, they're not just for system-involved girls.

I want to make that very clear, because some people assume... GARY: It's for everyone.

AYANA: It's for all girls.

But because I know that there are very few to none, we didn't have any programs here in the city of Trenton for girls, in general, and then systems-involved girls, no one wanted to service them.

So I made sure that I had a space for them.

But they do need a different type of care.

They need a different level of advocacy.

And they just need, they just need more things.

And if you're not going to have that within your program, they're probably not gonna go because it doesn't make sense for them to go if they're not getting helped.

♪ ♪ GARY: Tell me some of the challenges that are facing youth in Trenton, New Jersey, right now.

BETHESDA: Basically fighting over the different areas in the city.

GARY: So territory.

BETHESDA: So territory.

Basically territorial.

That's our biggest issue that we have right now.

Another issue is programming.

We just don't have enough programming for the kids.

Whereas back when we had Y's, you know?

CYOs and YMCAs and different locations for the kids to have an outlet to go and play.

So we just don't have that.

GARY: Talk about Timbuk2 Academy.

BETHESDA: We send her our girls.

It's an amazing program.

Our girls need it.

Every girl that I send to her, she stays with them from the beginning until they actually graduate either high school or college.

GARY: Amazing.

BETHESDA: Right.

And we still collaborate with her.

It's an amazing program, and I'm glad that she started it back up.

GARY: Tell me about the different programs that you actually run.

AYANA: We have a sewing program, it's called Sew So Dope.

And the Sew So Dope program allows our girls to use their "kuumba," which is a Swahili word that means creativity.

And we take old clothing and teach the girls how to create new clothing from the old clothes.

They're sewing on a budget, right?

GARY: Repurposing, yeah.

AYANA: They're repurposing, they're helping the environment.

We're not filling up landfills, right, with our clothes.

They're learning how to sew.

That's the hallmark of the program.

We had a girl that was four years old that made a dress, actually.

GARY: Oh, that's amazing.

AYANA: Four years old.

She was on a sewing machine.

GARY: Nice.

AYANA: So that's one of our popular programs.

Then we have a rites of passage program called Hey Girl!

Blossoming Into Joy, which is the first program that I wrote.

It's a time for them to focus on themselves, allows them to really reflect on their lives and reflect on the things that they need to change or not change so that they can feel elevated and empowered and whole.

It's all about teaching them the importance of happiness and how it's their responsibility to maintain their happiness... GARY: Amazing.

AYANA: ...and to maintain their joy regardless of... GARY: Circumstances.

AYANA: ...where they live.

Exactly.

You still deserve to be happy.

You still deserve to have joy.

And we give them certain tools that are tangible so that they can be anywhere and still maintain their joy.

♪ ♪ GARY: How do they respond to sewing?

SHACORA: The girls love it.

They're so happy that they can make something and be able to show everybody, like, "I made this myself with my own hands."

GARY: Why is a program like this so important?

SHACORA: A program like this is, like, crucial to the development of a child.

I didn't have this growing up in the city of Trenton.

There was no programs for me to learn how to sew.

There was no programs for me as a kid, as a girl, especially as a girl, that would teach me that I'm worthy.

I'm born worthy.

I am worthy of love.

I'm worthy of learning.

I'm just worthy.

And I just wish I had something like this when I was younger that believed in me as much as Ayana believes in these young girls.

GARY: Everyone is worthy, and not everybody feels that automatically.

You know, you get beat down, your self-confidence, you know, after negative experience, negative experience, you end up in this spot where you don't feel worthy.

SHACORA: Growing up in this area, like the things you see, like, you have abandoned buildings.

And when you're in that environment, you don't think that you're gonna make it out.

You think that you're going to be a product of your environment.

You don't know that there's other things out there for you.

And this program can show kids, specifically girls, that there's other things out there for you, you know.

It's better than hanging on the street.

Just more to life than just staying in your small community, because Trenton is only, what, 7.7 square miles.

So it's like, you know, this program will show you that it's more than what it is with the city of Trenton.

You could do more.

♪ GARY: Tell me the concept behind "Born Worthy."

AYANA: Initially it started out as like a fundraiser.

I would tell the girls all the time that they're worthy, just all children that I work with, that they're worthy despite them, you know, being involved in the system or not having as much money as they want to have or should have.

GARY: Yep.

AYANA: The things that they've gone through, the conditions of their community.

GARY: Yeah.

AYANA: Right?

I started to, uh, sell the shirts.

GARY: Okay.

AYANA: I just wanted to launch something positive for the girls.

GARY: Yeah, absolutely.

AYANA: Then we started, people asked for them, and I said, "Well, let's just sell them."

And I used the money from the shirt sales to help support programming.

There was no money when I started these programs.

I used my own money.

And the girls always need things.

They need everything.

They need a birth certificate, they need transportation fare, they need stuff.

And I'm like, "Well, how we gonna pay for it?

Well, y'all gonna model."

You see the pictures of the girls, they're the models.

And they helped launch the Born Worthy period, the brand, and now we're a brand.

We have a website.

It is a subsidiary of the Timbuk2 Academy.

When you support Born Worthy, you are supporting our girls.

You are investing in them and allowing us to do what we do.

GARY: Tell me a little bit about the basis of this mural.

AYANA: So this mural here was painted by young students that were enrolled and involved in the YouthStat Project.

GARY: Okay.

AYANA: And this mural is really special to me because these are, the young people who painted this wall, are the kids that people say will never cooperate with anything.

GARY: And they did.

AYANA: Not only did they cooperate, they cooperated with law enforcement.

And they came out here and they painted this.

But our YouthStat kids, the ones who we deem and we write off... GARY: Yeah.

AYANA: ...they did this.

GARY: That's proof that, you know, just a little bit of effort on both sides goes a really, really long way.

AYANA: You just gotta stay on them.

That's all.

What I said, consistency.

You have to be consistent.

GARY: Consistency.

Because they see you slip or they see you fail, then they're gonna lose the confidence in themselves, you know, so...

It's responsibility.

Yeah.

AYANA: They see it now.

And we were in the car one day, we rolled past.

"Remember when we put that on the wall?"

I'm like, "Y'all did that, and it's still holding up pretty good."

♪ GARY: How does Timbuk2 Academy operate as a business?

AYANA: We are self-funded.

GARY: Okay.

AYANA: We do not receive funding from the government.

It's not a charter.

This is an independent private school.

GARY: Got it.

AYANA: Parents have to pay for the services.

If they want to pay for a child to be in a program, depending on which program it is, there is a cost associated with it.

When we get awarded grants, parents may have to pay just the application or the enrollment fee, and then the kid is in.

We collaborate with other organizations, we collaborate with other universities, and we're able to offset a lot of the costs for our girls and for young children when we do those things.

GARY: It feels like you're not in this for the money.

It feels like very much a social mission.

But you're able to sustain, right?

AYANA: I feel like a lifelong volunteer.

GARY: Okay.

[laughing] AYANA: So it costs a lot to run this business.

I really think that people believe that we are getting, like, millions of dollars from...you know?

Like, millions of dollars to run these programs.

GARY: Yeah.

AYANA: It works because the staff are multitalented.

They can do more than one thing.

So they can teach yoga, they can teach sewing, they can teach all these different things.

But it takes a lot to run.

Insurance for... GARY: For sure, yeah.

AYANA: Through the roof.

And being in this community, right, everything is higher because the liability is higher because of the crime, because of the unkept properties, which we are currently dealing with an issue now.

All of that drives up the cost to just be able to have a child walk through the door.

♪ ♪ GARY: Why was it important for you to have your daughter come here?

WILLIAM: For one, in society, with young girls growing up, a lot of times there's a lot of body shaming, image issues, social media, just the negative images.

And what I wanted my daughter to do is be able to embrace the culture of this Born Worthy.

GARY: What are some of the things that she's been able to learn here, some of the tasks and life skills and stuff like that?

WILLIAM: For her, honestly, everything was transferable.

Two years ago, she actually started her own lip gloss line.

And I benefited all of that to the Born Worthy program just showing them the idea that you have the ability to create.

GARY: Yes.

WILLIAM: And using your hands and using those ancestral-type skills.

So with sewing, I believe that transition to her, realizing that, listen, "I have the ability to create my own economics."

GARY: What are some ways that this program could get better community support?

WILLIAM: Any way you can help, whether it be money, whether it be resources, whether it be hands.

You know, the Bible talks about, you know, "Work is plenty.

Laborers are few."

We need more people to help out.

GARY: Do you have any stories that you can tell, success stories of a system-involved girl that you've helped here?

AYANA: I met a young lady when she was nine years old.

GARY: Okay.

AYANA: Nine years old, running away all the time from home.

GARY: Nine?

Wow.

AYANA: Yeah, nine.

Nine years old.

She's running, constantly running away, habitual runaway.

And this is how it starts.

They start running away, then it goes to something else and something else.

So it ended up going from nine.

She's now 19.

Um, she's been through a lot.

She has been through so much trauma, so much in and out, running away, just doing all kinds of horrible things, right?

Getting into all kinds of stuff that she should not be into.

But she graduated from school last year.

GARY: Okay.

AYANA: And... Oh, I'm about to get emotional.

♪ [sighs] ♪ Oh, man.

It was...it was... it was...

It was a big thing for me to see her... because I knew what she had been through, right?

And not only did she graduate, she graduated and like, the president, she got, like, all these awards.

GARY: Oh, my gosh.

AYANA: And I'm standing there like, huh?

GARY: Wow.

AYANA: And so proud, like, I'm just...

Even to this day, I'm so proud of her.

She and I will be in each other's face all the time.

I had to get with her, and I told her one day, "You're stuck with me forever."

She probably had been like, 13, and she rolled her eyes up... she rolled her eyes up in her head, like, "Ugh!

This lady, I can't stand this lady."

GARY: You just kept believing in her, kept pushing her.

AYANA: It was just something about her.

GARY: That's commitment.

AYANA: That... that's, that is.

And that's how we get success with our girls here.

And just in the work in general, you have to stay consistent with them.

You have to stay consistent.

Even being in the system is traumatic for children.

So if you're gonna work with our children, you've got to be consistent.

♪ ♪ GARY: What do you like most about being here?

DIANA: I get opportunities to help me for my future.

And it's just fun.

And I get to try new things and go places and meet people.

GARY: What do you think of Ayana?

DIANA: I love her.

GARY: What do you like about her?

What kind of person is she?

DIANA: She's... She's like real.

She's honest.

And she, um, you know, she don't play around.

She's not like mean or like scary or nothing.

You can go to her for anything and she will help you if you want to do something.

She's always gonna have somewhere that you can go so that you get, you know, that opportunity.

YA'NAJAH: She does not play.

And what I mean by she does not play, you know, she's gonna be hard on you.

It's tough love.

She doesn't want to see you out here on the street doing anything wrong.

She wants you to do better.

She wants to watch you on TV, walk across the stage, win an award for something.

She did help me become who I am today.

And yeah, she's a really nice person.

GARY: Do you remember back to the very beginning when you first started coming?

YA'NAJAH: Yes, I believe it was the Clique program I started with.

GARY: Okay, tell me about that.

YA'NAJAH: It really built me up a lot.

I'm used to being out and on cameras, but I am a shy person.

It got me to use my communication skills better, believe in myself more.

Having a helping hand by Miss Ayana and my father as well to push me to do better in life really made me to be the best person that I am right now.

GARY: What do you think has been the biggest challenge since you started?

Or what's the biggest challenge that you're facing now?

AYANA: Actually, the biggest challenge that I'm facing now is the community that I'm in.

And that's really sad that I have to say that.

Not having the support from the municipality that I need to do the things that I should be able to do in my city.

We shouldn't have to leave here.

We should be able to stay here and things should adjust and adapt to the fact that we're working with children here and we're providing a solution to all of the poverty.

We're providing a solution to the lack of employment.

We're providing solutions to prevent sexual violence against girls.

We're doing the work here.

So the fact that it hasn't really shifted enough or as much as I think it should have to allow us to do what we need to do, something is wrong with that picture.

GARY: You need more support.

AYANA: More support, right.

Something is wrong with that picture.

GARY: And you're not stopping.

AYANA: No, no, I'm not going.

I like to fight.

I get things done.

GARY: What's the future hold for you and Timbuk2?

AYANA: I definitely want for us to grow.

I want for more young ladies and more young children to be able to send their babies to us and for them to have the experience that they deserve to have.

And that is to be loved, that is to be supported, that is to feel inspired, that is to strengthen their sense of self-worth.

And I want them to be happy.

I want Timbuk2 Academy to be everywhere.

And we're gonna get there.

We're gonna get there.

GARY: It's difficult to find the words to express what I felt meeting with Ayana and her team, because what she's doing at Timbuk2 goes so far beyond words.

Ayana is a true champion for youth.

She's giving them hope, strength, and the feeling that they are born worthy.

Worthy of respect.

Worthy of education.

And worthy of all the amazing things that they are yet to experience in this life.

And she's standing up and taking action for all of the things lacking in her community.

The city of Trenton, New Jersey, is going through a very challenging time.

Many afterschool programs have been cut, the adolescents' program with the police was cut.

The neighborhood infrastructure needs a lot of attention.

The schools need more funding, and it's gonna be a long uphill battle across the board.

But if anyone is up to the task, it's Ayana.

Beyond academic excellence, cultural identity awareness, physical, social, emotional, and spiritual development, Timbuk2 elevates the student's knowledge of self-respect, self-discipline, self-love, self-awareness, and self-expression.

Every community has children that are struggling.

Every community has parents that need help guiding their children.

And every community needs their own Timbuk2 Academy.

For more information, visit our website and search episodes for "Timbuk2 Academy."

♪ Next time on "Start Up," we head to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to meet up with Brian Gaudio and Drew Brisley, the founders of Module, a company that builds customizable, energy-efficient modular homes.

Be sure to join us next time on "Start Up."

♪ Would you like to learn more about the show or maybe nominate a business?

Visit our website at startup-usa.com and connect with us on social media.

♪ ♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ A long road ahead of us before we pay our dues ♪ ♪ We got a long road ahead of us ♪ ♪ A long road ahead of us ♪ A long road ahead of us before we pay our dues ♪ IAN: Awesome!

♪ [beep] WOMAN: Like, no, no, no... GARY: Oh, for you.

Yeah, okay.

ANNOUNCER: The first time you made a sale online was also the first time you heard of a town named... MAN: Dinosaur.

We just got an order from Dinosaur, Colorado.

MAN: No way!

ANNOUNCER: Build a website to help reach more customers.

WOMAN: Wait, wait, wait, wait!

One more.

ANNOUNCER: GoDaddy.

Tools and support for small business firsts.

Spectrum Business recognizes the importance of small businesses to local communities, so we're investing $21 million to help small businesses access funding to help them grow.

Spectrum Business.

More than an internet, phone, and TV provider.

♪