Program & campus vision imagery
A tuition-free business ownership program built on practical AI skills, for young adults aging out of foster care and the juvenile justice system. Ages 16 to 25. Twelve seats. First cohort begins August 1, 2026.
Young adults age out of the American foster care system every year — and the system stops seeing them the day the case closes.
These young people are not short on talent or determination. What they're missing is what most business owners started with: one steady adult in their corner, and a fair chance to build something of their own. This program exists to provide both.
Six months. Fully online. Free to attend. Every participant builds their own AI-powered marketing business — the tools, the training, and the coaching to go after their first paying customer before the program ends. A business with their name on it.
The first three months build the foundations. Participants learn to think like business owners — money, customers, and the tools of the trade — before they ever pitch one.
Months four and five are about real customers. Participants reach out, quote real work, and deliver it — with a mentor beside them for every step.
The final month closes the cohort and opens the year ahead — because a business is a beginning, not a finish line.
The pilot is intentionally small so every participant gets deep, one-to-one attention from the faculty. Applications close July 25, 2026.
Apply now →The four named below lead program design, curriculum, and delivery — all as volunteers. Behind them: a licensed clinical counselor, a small-business accounting professional, an enterprise marketing director, and specialists in prospecting and administration.
Started her first business at sixteen. Ten years designing systems for service-based small businesses. Leads program design, funder relations, and the campus vision — because she knows exactly what one real shot at ownership can do.
Works full-time on program delivery. Leads the AI curriculum, software toolchain, and automation coursework participants build their agencies on — every tool a student touches, he has already built with.
Professor and Chair of Mathematics & Computer Science at Southern Arkansas University. Research sponsored by DARPA, AFOSR, AFRL, and NASA; co-lead on a $20M NSF data-analytics initiative. He brings university-level rigor to a six-month intensive.
Leads participant onboarding, near-peer mentorship, and Foundation outreach to university networks. The nearest generation to the students in the cohort — and proof of where the path leads.
Licensed Professional Counselor Associate with 17 years working with families as an educator and school counselor. Trauma-informed, working across four languages, she works as a counselor in Texas and leads clinical support for the cohort.
Supports instruction, participant administration, and the day-to-day operations that keep a twelve-seat, nine-teacher program running — the steady hands behind the cohort.
Plus extended faculty covering small-business accounting, enterprise marketing, prospecting, and administration — nine volunteer teachers for twelve students, at zero cost to the student.
Azgari Lipshy (President & Director) · Stephen Dugan · Dr. Md Enamul Karim · Khadijah Karim ·Nasreen Ahmed · Rowshanara Moly
Bylaws, conflict-of-interest policy, code of conduct, and the IRS determination letter are available to funders on request.
Co-delivers the pilot cohort, refers eligible young adults into the program, and provides wraparound support drawing on their community-based youth services network.
Founded by retired NFL player Stephen Braggs, this Austin-area 501(c)(3) supports foster youth ages 13–22 with housing stability, financial literacy, and mentorship. SBYF co-pilots the first cohort — contributing referrals, organizational capacity, and a shared conviction that ownership is a durable way out.
A wellness-focused live-and-learn campus where opportunity youth spend up to a year building a business, a body, and a future.
The pilot cohort is where we start. But the vision is bigger than six months of online classes. It's a place. It's a year. It's the difference between graduating with a certificate and graduating with a future you own outright.
A place where a young person can arrive without an adult in their corner — and leave with a business, a network, and a plan.
Cottages to live in. A learning hall. Hydroponic towers and a working greenhouse. A kitchen where they learn to cook the food they grow. Space to lift, to run, to breathe. A pond, a garden — and most of all, a network of adults who show up for them until they no longer need the campus at all.
This is what we're raising for. This is where we're going.
Stable, dignified housing on campus for up to a year while participants learn and build.
Their own micro-business or high-demand job skills — an income they own outright.
Nutrition, fitness, mental health, and financial literacy woven into every day.
Azgari Foundation is a Delaware 501(c)(3) public charity — IRC §170(b)(1)(A)(vi) — with an active SAM.gov registration and an IRS determination effective December 1, 2025. We are structured to receive workforce agency contracts, federal and state grants, foundation awards, and individual philanthropy. Programs are free to participants and always will be.
Since January 2026 the Foundation has delivered scholarship-funded entrepreneurship education while designing this pilot — eight scholarships awarded to date; two participants operate active businesses today as a direct result of the program, and three more are employed while building toward ownership.
Opportunity youth ages 16–25, with a focus on foster care alumni, current and former Preparation for Adult Living (PAL) participants, young adults exiting the juvenile justice system, Community-Based Care (CBC) referrals, and unaccompanied youth facing housing instability — priority populations under WIOA Title I Youth Formula, Chafee Foster Care Independence, and Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) funding streams.
Opportunity Austin, Austin Community Foundation, Workforce Solutions Capital Area, Texas Workforce Commission Foster Youth Task Force and Region 7 PAL leadership, Texas Homeless Network Balance of State Continuum of Care, Texas DFPS, LifeWorks Austin, Capital A Housing, PeopleFund, and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas Affordable Housing Program.
EIN 41-2896092
UEI U95WFYNFERH3
Delaware 501(c)(3), foreign-registered in Texas
Funder briefings, letters of support, site visits, and outcome reporting plans on two weeks' notice. Determination letter and financials available on request.
Time remaining: —
Can't find your answer? Email fosteryouthinitiative@azgari.org — a person reads every message.
Every sponsorship covers a graduate's first-year operating costs. Every general gift builds the pilot — and the campus.
Donations to Azgari Foundation are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.
EIN 41-2896092 · Delaware 501(c)(3) public charity · Determination letter available on request