The business community has a complex relationship with youth. Young people are looked at both as innovators crucial to future progress and as naive brats with no clue what they’re talking about. A way to help minimize the negative side of that equation is to temper that youthful enthusiasm with a little world-weary guidance in the form of an internship, a mentorship, or even just an open line of communication between an established professional and an ambitious youngster. Moses Tut, a young entrepreneur in his own right, is taking steps to help his fellow millennials form relationships with professionals in the Sioux Falls community through his new nonprofit, Conscious Youth Solutions.

Originally from South Sudan, Tut has experienced more than his fair share of adversity in his 23 years. The Sudanese civil war that erupted in 1983 and lasted until 2005 eventually drove him, his parents, and his six siblings to seek refuge in the United States in 1999. Tut was just six years old, and he didn’t speak a word of English. Luckily, relatives were able to help he and his family assimilate, but planting roots proved impossible as his family continued to bounce around the Midwest, from Texas to Minnesota to Iowa to Nebraska. Tut ended up coming to Sioux Falls to attend college at Augustana, but the roaming spirit he had formed over the years proved too potent to allow him stay in one place for long. Midway through his sophomore year, he left school and began to follow the regional music scene, attending concerts and promoting his urban clothing brand ALM (Ambitious Legendary Movement). Now back in Sioux Falls, he’s acquired some experience in the nonprofit field through his work organizing children’s events for the Sioux Falls Diversity Council. Through that work he discovered an unaddressed need among the local youth, and that led him to form his own nonprofit organization.

Conscious Youth Solutions is a research and development council formed by millennials, for millennials. While they don’t exclude anyone seeking their services, their primary demographic ranges from ages 18-25. Tut and his partners have built a database of local professionals willing to share their knowledge and experience with anyone eager to learn, and, by sitting down with young people and learning about their interests and ambitions, they intend to place millennials in the best position to thrive in their future business careers. The results of their field research has convinced them that interest in the program is strong on both sides, with about 80% of survey respondents approving of the nonprofit’s mission. Conscious Youth Solutions has already had an event bringing speakers from both the business community and the youth community together to share their unique perspectives, and they’re currently preparing for a program wherein 12 students will compete with one another to develop an innovative business plan, with a $3,000 grand prize awarded to the winner. After securing more funding and increasing their visibility, the nonprofit hopes to expand their database of professionals, inform more young individuals about their services, and organize more and larger events to help bring the business community and its future leaders together early and often.

While the nonprofit is currently in its infancy, Tut has big plans for its future. He envisions their current office (in the nonprofit center at 1000 Northwest Ave.) as not only a meeting and classroom space for collaborative projects and guest lectures, but eventually also as a place for local young people to hang out and work to better themselves with the help of free resources like internet access and the chance to work with Adobe programs like Photoshop and Illustrator. Any method they can find to help the young people of Sioux Falls and the surrounding area prepare themselves for a future in business will be considered, and, as Conscious Youth Solutions expands, the opportunities it can offer will expand right along with it.