
After founding and then directing a youth entrepreneurship/job readiness/financial literacy education organization in Orange, MA for 14 years, I moved to the DC area in 2013 to join Joanie and our son Noah, settling in the cooperative New Deal-era community of Greenbelt, Maryland.
I created and ran a social enterprise development program with 3rd to 5th graders in an underserved part of the city. They planned and started a business selling bicycle-blended smoothies at community events. It was fun translating content geared towards teenagers to the younger set, half of whom were from West Africa. When the grant ended, Noah and I retrofitted our garden shed into a graphic design and copy business serving area nonprofits and faith communities.
When we wound it down 3 years later, I took a full-time position with our county government, as part of the team responsible for providing job earnings training and summer employment opportunities for 7,000 teenagers each year.
Unfortunately, I was forced to resign for health reasons in May. In the month since, I've been focused on healing, pivoting to a new career as a life coach, and working on a book about my archaeologist grandfather who seemingly vanished in 1941 and his employer, the New York engineer and banker who amassed the world's largest collection of native American artifacts and founded the Museum of the American Indian, now part of the Smithsonian.
I have published a number of articles on youth employment, community currencies, and fair trade. Much of my work has focused on the potential of local currencies and their ability to provide employment for youth.
Joanie (Cohen) and I were divorced in 2018. We live within two blocks and co-parent Noah, now 18, and a high school senior. He aspires to be a high school history teacher after completing college.[10-20]
Email: timothybrucemitchell@gmail.com