Homegrown Pathways

Homegrown Pathways is a rural Colorado-based nonprofit that aims to drive economic mobility by connecting rural youth and young adults to quality career and entrepreneurial pathways in their home region. Our organization serves as the Rural Pathways Implementation Strategy consulting partner to the Elevate Quantum TechHub, developing a strategic roadmap that ensures rural voices, assets, and opportunities are fully integrated into the emerging quantum workforce ecosystem across the Rocky Mountain West. Additionally, Homegrown Pathways' 6-week youth pre-accelerator program, Spark Lab, aims to empower rural youth with the entrepreneurial mindset, social capital, durable skill development and seed funding to not only begin to build businesses and social ventures, but to advance quality career pathways within their home communities. The intended outcome is a future rural workforce of empowered individuals that have the self-efficacy, social capital, confidence, entrepreneurial spirit and collaborative muscle to achieve economic mobility, while advancing businesses and innovation. Our underlying thesis at Homegrown Pathways is that as a state and as a country, we do not suffer from a lack of good ideas – our challenge is a deficit of empowered ideas. For ideas to be empowered, they need to be identified, encouraged and invested in. Homegrown Pathways is focused on scaling Spark Lab across rural Colorado, with the goal for the model and impact to serve as a proof point for national replication. For more information, see www.homegrownpathways.org.