Juma Ventures strives to break the cycle of poverty by paving the way to work, education and financial capability for youth across America. Founded in 1993 with a single Ben & Jerry’s Shop in San Francisco, Juma’s initial business, a social enterprise, was designed to give homeless youth the training and job experience they needed to transition from living on the streets to enjoying a stable adulthood. Since then, Juma has become a nationally recognized youth development organization focused on employment, financial capability, and career supportive services. Our vision is that all young people have the opportunity to succeed, advance and thrive in the career of their choice, competing in a job market that is inclusive, equitable, and diverse.
Today, Juma operates over 20 concession businesses and employs more than 500 youth every year at major sports and entertainment venues across the West Coast (Sacramento, San Francisco, San Jose, and Seattle). As the country's largest youth-run employment social enterprise, as of 2023 Juma has employed more than 10,000 low-income youth who have earned $14 million in wages, saved $6.4 million for post-secondary education, and generated $42 million in enterprise revenue to continue advancing our mission.
Juma's strong leadership, dedicated staff, effective service model and committed funding partners have led to numerous awards including the National Youth Employment Coalition's PEPNet Award for effective Practices and the National Organization of the Year award from the Social Enterprise Alliance. In 2017, Juma earned the Gold Award at the Seattle Business Magazine's Community Impact Awards for Youth Development Non-Profit of the Year. Juma Seattle and Juma Sacramento have both been selected as recipients of the prestigious Bank of America Neighborhood Builders Award. In 2018, as a member of the Obama Foundation’s inaugural grant cohort, Juma led the first iteration of the My Brother’s Keeper (MBK) Initiative, influencing local services for boys and young men of color and contributing nationwide. In January 2023, Juma presented at the Annual Mentoring Summit in Washington D.C. In December 2023, Juma received the Catalyzing Engagement Nonprofit Award. In recent years, 100% of youth participants indicated they would "recommend Juma to a friend" and our most recent staff satisfaction rate was 89%.
Juma is looking for great people who share our passion for working with youth and for using business as a tool for sustainable social impact. Our workplace is supportive, open, inclusive and relevant, focused on youth, empowerment, dedication, and respect. Our four core values are Youth First, Stronger Together, Respect & Appreciation, and Integrity & Transparency. Juma commits to modeling diversity and inclusion for our youth, their communities, our employees and the institutions with whom we collaborate, maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment and compassion, and actively creating meaningful change.
