The Good Life Youth Foundation is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization that was founded in August of 2012. We exist at the intersections of youth engagement, entrepreneurship and HipHop culture! It was founded by the CEO, Hasan Stephens, and born out of a desire to eliminate youth violence, poverty and incarceration by exposing youth to the power of HipHop Culture. We aim to use HipHop culture and youth culture to connect the highest risk youth population with opportunity access through entrepreneurship.
Our founder, Hasan “Maestro” Stephens, is a living testament to the transformative power of entrepreneurship. As an impoverished youth in the inner-city, he experienced firsthand the challenges faced by young people in underprivileged communities. Through his own journey, he recognized the importance of mentorship, education, and access to resources in helping youth succeed. We believe that by providing access to necessary supports and resources, we can empower youth to take control of their lives and build a better future for themselves and their communities, becoming thriving and sustainably contributing members of their communities.
Based in Syracuse, NY within Onondaga County, we battle daily the systemic realities of being the nation’s capital for concentrated poverty amongst African-Americans and Latinos. Additionally, we have the highest child poverty rate and a disparate display of segregation and inequity. While much of our work is done in Syracuse, our impact extends throughout the state of New York. We also provide consulting and assist in innovative model design for various jurisdictions nationally, including Kansas City and Albuquerque through our critical work in SPER (Shifting Power for Equity and Results), the consulting wing of Good Life Youth Foundation. Through sharing our model and helping jurisdictions understand the necessary steps to bridge a gap between systems and community to affect and maximize change where needed.
Hasan Stephens and Board President
Jonathan Cerrito.
At Good Life Youth Foundation, we are not just youth mentoring agency. Our focus on entrepreneurship as a guiding factor to our model allows for us to also design, create, and operate various social ventures that allow us to hire, train, and graduate youth into creating their own businesses toward self-sustainability. We believe that by providing young people with the tools and resources they need to succeed, we can break the cycle of poverty and create a better future for all.
Our Philosophy
At the Good Life Youth Foundation, we believe that every young person deserves a chance at a good life. But we also understand that living a good life is a choice—one that is influenced by opportunity, awareness, and environment. Our mission is to provide the resources, mentorship, and support necessary for youth to make empowered choices that lead to success.
We reject the idea of “bad youth.” There are only young people who, shaped by their experiences and circumstances, make choices—sometimes good, sometimes bad. Our role is to expand their awareness, increase their access to opportunities, and shift their environments so that positive choices become natural and attainable.
One of the most powerful tools for generational change is entrepreneurship. We believe that ownership—of businesses, ideas, and opportunities—is one of the few vehicles that can truly close the racial wealth gap. By instilling entrepreneurial skills and a mindset of innovation, we equip youth to take control of their futures and break cycles of poverty.
At the heart of everything we do is HipHop Culture. More than music, HipHop is a movement built on peace, love, unity, and having fun. Its values—community, wisdom, freedom, justice, responsibility, and respect for self and others—align perfectly with our mission of youth empowerment. Through HipHop, we teach leadership, creativity, resilience, and self-expression, ensuring that young people not only dream big but have the skills and confidence to make those dreams a reality.
At the Good Life Youth Foundation, we don’t just prepare young people for the future—we help them build it.
Our Values
Authenticity
Integrity
Collaboration
Knowledge
Resilience
Innovation