INDIANAPOLIS — A new summit is coming to Indianapolis to empower young teens in high crime areas. 

The Breakthrough to Excellence Youth and Parent Summit is April 9 and 10. The deadline to register is Monday, March 28. 

“You know there’s so much more to life and if you take this great advice we’re giving and all of this knowledge we’re pushing out, I promise that everything in your life will change,” said Youth Summit organizer Amber Lynch. 

There will be resources, training and new opportunities. 

“I just want to see everybody in our community win,” Lynch said. 

Lynch is on a mission to help teens build a better future and break past cycles of crime and poverty. 

“So, to be effective, I want to show them how they can get out of these situations. I want to show them how poverty isn’t life.” 

She got the idea after she was released from federal prison for preparing false tax returns. 

“So, basically I did taxes and I kind of lied a little bit. So, I got in trouble for that and did my time, got in trouble in prison, did a little bit more time, but everything happens for a reason.” 

Now she wants to help people so they don’t go down the same path. 

“I met a lot of wonderful people on that journey, and they’ve helped me out a lot actually in life. I’ve made great friends and connections,” said Lynch. 

The summit will have workshops to help with things like building self esteem to feel more confident to try new things and decision-making skills.  

“Because these kids aren’t thinking things through, they’re not thinking about the consequences and even if they halfway think about the consequences and they don’t realize the reality until they are 2-3 years into their sentence,” Lynch said. 

One of the major workshops will focus on financial literacy. She’s enlisted entrepreneur and investor Willie Viverette to help, also known as Willie Dynamite. 

“We need to get the youth off of that path and we all know anytime when jobs is up, crimes are slow. Any time jobs are low, crime is up,” said Viverette. 

“So we have to help bridge the gap between the poor and the rich, that is what everything boils down to in economics. Everything is economics right now. Your money determines the opportunities you have.” 

This is something Viverette says makes a huge impact. 

“Nobody showed us how to build our credit. They had us in schools dissecting frogs but didn’t show us how to build credit, didn’t show us the importance of real estate,” said Viverette. 

He’ll teach things like the difference between a saving account and investing. 

“So, to put that in laymen’s terms, it would take you 100 years of your money sitting in that checking account to get one percent. That’s why we are behind the curve,” Viverette said. 

“Meanwhile, if you invest into the actual Chase stock, it comes with a 3.7 percent dividend and that’s paid out yearly.” 

There will also be employers there looking to give new opportunities like Danielle Hurse whose company is hiring caregivers. 

“Um, I just think right now just in the world, in the industries and just everything going on, we are just trying to get people back to work. Get more people involved in you know, being connected in the community, just being a resource to the community as well,” said business owner and entrepreneur Danielle Hurse. 

The summit will have a full job fair, as well as food, snacks and door prizes to keep people interested. 

If you’re interested in signing up for the summit or for more information visit their website.