We are excited to announce the winner of the Mobile Beacon Moments Storytelling Contest.
Congrats to our #MBMoments winner, Dynamic Community Solutions! Thanks to everyone who shared, voted, and learned about the organizations we serve!
Youth Inspiration Nation's Mobile Beacon Moment
If awarded with a Mobile Beacon Community Grant, how will your organization use the monetary donation?
Funding will be used to offset the cost of our program for the underprivileged children we serve (20 students @ $10 per hour, per student @ two hours per day after-school = $100 per student, per week @ 8 weeks = $16,000). We only ask $25 per week, per family (multiple kids in one family still only pay $25 total). A weekly payment is required to keep the families invested in our program. If no payment was required, families tend to show up when they want, if at all. Our program’s success depends on our kids showing up every day. The amount paid by the students adds up to $4000 and would leave a remainder of $12,000 of funding we need to come up with every class.
We also use funding for children that are experiencing extreme hardship, but still want to attend the program. We will cover the cost for them to attend if the students and families sign a promissory note that they will make every effort to attend the program on a daily basis.
How will your organization use the 10 mobile hotspots with free internet service?
Having more Mobile Beacons would greatly improve the capabilities of our flight simulators when it's downloading or updating new content in class. Each simulator takes about one hour each or more to download new content every other week with one Mobile Beacon. We currently have 5 simulators.
We would add two Mobile Beacons to our classroom, and have the seven remaining Beacons available to kids that don't have internet access. We just recently partnered with PlaneEnglish, an application that teaches new pilots how to perform radio communications in the airport environment. Our kids would benefit greatly by being able to study radio communications at home.
The Mobile Beacons and the laptops will allow our young aviators to learn at home, while allowing us to create more content that will help us to move to a virtual environment if needed. This is something that we do not currently have in place because we don't have the equipment to accomplish it.
Share Your Story
Without good internet, we would have never been able to get our flight simulators ready for the opening day of our program. On March 9, 2020, Youth Inspiration Nation made history as the first nonprofit organization to have an aviation program and the first full motion flight simulator inside an elementary school classroom in the United States of America. Mobile Beacon helped us to accomplish our mission, and for that we thank you.
Our doors opened on the 9th, and unfortunately closed on the 13th due to the Covid situation. We've used our time wisely to prepare for the future. Our kids are stuck at home, away from their friends, looking forward to coming back to school. When the kids return, we'll have one of the most uniquely amazing programs in the country waiting for them.
As we grow as an organization, Mobile Beacon will continue to be at the heart of our flight simulators, in the classroom or out at an events. We look forward to getting back to work!