Hello, my name is Swinks Laporte, and I appreciate you for taking the time to read my story. As a youth my parents oftentimes found it difficult to make ends meet and this placed a heavy financial struggle on everyone in my family. These moments were very impactful on my adolescent years and led to a series of challenges throughout my life which led to encounters with the criminal justice system.

My life took a serious turn during the Covid Pandemic when I started to notice how much of a financial crisis urban cities faced. I decided to do something about this and co-founded REBELS INC ( Raising Entrepreneurs Building Essential Life Skills) a non-profit organization which aims to teach Financial Literacy and Entrepreneurship to high school students through the lens of sneaker culture.

As an inspiring entrepreneur I am coming to realize raising capital is a daunting task and there are expenses outside of my ability to fulfill despite my own efforts. This call to action for donations will be used to fund the next cohort of students book materials, design a more interactive webpage, student prizes and t-shirt sales. Any amount contributed towards our mission will be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to share this story to others as well.