Learn deeply. Build carefully.
Deliver initial cohorts, listen to young people, and refine the program through evaluation and partner feedback. Prepare a supported training pathway for future facilitators.
The story behind the mission
He once needed someone
to see more in him, too.
Inspire To Aspire grew from a personal understanding of how much can change when a young person encounters new possibilities and people who believe in them.
Lived experience at the heart of the work
This mission is personal.
Dave experienced foster care, group homes, juvenile detention, gang involvement, and homelessness. His mother died while he was detained. There were times when a different future was difficult to imagine.
Ron Barnick, his CASA and GAL, became a mentor who helped him see more in himself. Caring adults, new environments, and opportunities to learn helped him begin building a different life.
Dave went on to serve 24 years in the United States Air Force, build businesses and martial arts schools, become an author and speaker, and work as a resilience and accountability coach.
He founded I2A because he wants young people who are still living difficult experiences to have access to the people, possibilities, and practical skills that can help them move forward.
The focus is on what our young people can discover, choose, and build next.
To relate to people like us, and to uplift the children, means so much to our community.
Charmaine reflects on her lived experience and Sensei Dave’s earlier work. This is a personal testimonial, not a measured I2A pilot outcome.
Our mission
Help young people see a future
they want to move toward.
We create experiences and learning opportunities that help young people impacted by foster care, juvenile justice, and adversity discover possibilities, develop leadership identity, and take meaningful action.
Young people bring strengths, preferences, and ideas of their own. Their voice belongs in the experience we build together.
Explore the Youth Empowerment ProgramOne mission. A longer vision.
People who lived the experience.
Leading for those still living it.
Our ambitions reach beyond a single cohort. We want young people to have opportunities to become leaders who help create possibilities for others.
Grow through people.
Expand into more communities as evidence, funding, and capacity allow. Develop trained facilitators, including people with lived experience and veterans, with paid opportunities to lead.
Help shape what comes next.
Build a network where former participants can become mentors through established partners, facilitators, Caring Adults, and paid leaders who help improve systems for the next generation.
These are planning horizons, not achieved milestones. Expansion depends on what we learn, community needs, funding, and delivery capacity.
Lived experiencePersonal developmentTrainingSupported facilitator or mentor opportunitiesPaid leadershipImpact on the next generation
Help young people thrive, then help them lead.
Some participants may one day become facilitators, Caring Adults, or mentors through established partner organizations. With training, support, and opportunities to lead, they may also help change the systems that shape the next generation’s lives.
Accepting 2027 pilot partnerships
Help the next generation see further.
Tell us about your young people, your community, and the possibilities you want to help create.
Explore a 2027 Pilot PartnershipOr email info@upna.net