Youth Web Design

Small businesses must meet the following criteria:

• Be located in Seattle, WA.
• Have a City of Seattle Business License.
• Business and Occupation (B&O) taxes must be paid in full.
• Cannot be a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit organization.
• Do not currently have a business website or website is outdated and business is unable to perform necessary updates.

Creative entrepreneurs must meet the following criteria:

• Be based in Seattle, WA.
• Are launching or want to launch a creative profession to help with procuring more work.
• Ideally have visual and/or audio content of work to showcase.
• Do not currently have a business website or website is outdated and entrepreneur is unable to perform necessary updates.

For students:

• Young people interested in participating in the program should connect with ULMS directly and can learn more on the Youth Web Design program’s website.

• The fall cohort plans to serve up to 30 additional small businesses and support up to 30 additional youth from Oct. 3, 2022-Nov. 18, 2022.

• Selected business owners and/or business representatives must also participate in mandatory meetings to coordinate with selected youth designing their business’ website.

The Youth Web Design program pilot was launched in 2020 to respond to two emerging needs.

First, because of COVID-19 and immediate public health protocols that required social distancing and stay-at-home orders, businesses pivoted their operations and relied on online tools including websites and social media to remain open and connect with customers. Businesses that were without websites and digital tools prior to the pandemic were further impacted economically and faced higher barriers to getting online.

Secondly, paid employment and internship opportunities for youth were instantly reduced or eliminated, creating an economic crisis for young people who relied on these opportunities to generate income.

In response to these economic and social challenges, OED and ULMS developed this pilot program to educate, train and employ young people; and to support small businesses’ ability to stay open, operate in our virtual environment and develop sustainable digital tools for immediate and long-term stability, particularly for Black- and immigrant-owned businesses. To date, the program connected over 30 businesses with websites and digital tools for long-term stability and trained more than 35 youth in creating websites.

For questions about this program and corporate partnership opportunities, please contact OED’s Small Business Advocate, Eduardo Rojas, at eduardo.rojas@seattle.gov.

For questions about student participation, requirements, participating as a mentor and additional program benefits for student families, please contact ULMS’ Director of Education, Robert Jones, at rjones@urbanleague.org.