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

First, as a result 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 onset of 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, the City of Seattle Office of Economic Development and the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle developed this program to educate, train and employ young people, and support small businesses—particularly Black and immigrant owned businesses—ability to stay open, operate in our new virtual reality, and develop sustainable digital tools for immediate and long-term stability.

To date the program has supported getting 30 businesses online and connected with the digital tools for long term stability and trained more than 20 youth. With new funding an additional 50 youth and 50 businesses will be supported throughout 2022.

Throughout the 6-week cohort, participating youth will work directly with business owners to design professional websites that meet the unique needs of the individual business and can be used as part of their professional portfolio for future employment opportunities.

With guidance and instruction from certified trainers, students will produce everything from the design and creation of the websites and corresponding pages for each business, product photos, written copy, social media implementation, content development, and more.

At the end of the program, the newly established or updated website and future management will transition to the business owner. 

During the program, youth are taught industry standard skills including HTML, CSS, and JAVA, and will earn technical certification for the coding skills they learn. Youth will also learn social media strategy and marketing skills a part of the training curriculum.

Additionally, each young person will receive paid stipends for participating in the program and will soon earn Career and Technical Education (CTE) credits through Seattle Public Schools that will go toward graduation credit requirements.

The Youth Web Design program covers all website expenses for the first year, and business owners are taught technical skills needed to maintain and update their websites long-term.

“Having a website nowadays is no longer just ‘nice to have,’ it is vital for a business to thrive. Yet, it is out of reach for many small businesses—especially ones that are owned and operated by immigrants and other marginalized communities. In addition to the time needed to build one and the costs associated with maintaining a website, there are language barriers to overcome and a digital literacy gap to bridge. Our work with the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle and students participating in the City of Seattle’s Youth Web Design Program gave us the support we needed to get started. We look forward to growing our online presence beyond what we’ve been doing through our social channels,” says former web design business participant Hong Chhuor, whose family owns King Donuts.

For questions about student participation, requirements, and additional program benefits for student families, please contact Robert Jones via email rjones@urbanleague.org or call (206) 819-4828.