- Okay, everybody, we're gonna go on ahead and get started.

- [Jason] It's not a school, but it does conduct classes.

From one entitled "Design to Dollars."

- And I'm here to teach you how to make stuff and sell stuff.

- [Jason] To the art and business of deejaying.

- And my goal for you guys is at the end of this, you have the ability to play an event.

- [Jason] And printing and silk screening in a class called "Startup Apparel."

- [Instructor] Once everything is taped up on the sides lined up, the pre-production is almost done.

- [Jason] These classes are taking place in, ready for this?

The basement of a church, the Shiloh Institutional Baptist Church on Charlotte's west side.

- EY studies that showed that 28208 zip code was the, you know, highest unemployment rate in the city of Charlotte, which we sit right in today.

- So we target our west side schools for recruitment, and then we also partner with other nonprofits who are already working with students that would be perfect for our programs.

- If you are making a key chain, make your canvas two inches in width and two inches in height.

- [Jason] The organization setting up the curriculum and running the classes is called Do Greater Charlotte.

- Do Greater was this actualization for me after being in corporate America for a number of years to give back to the west side of Charlotte.

- [Jason] Do Greater's mission, teach kids about the things they're interested in, but don't typically learn about in traditional school settings.

- [Instructor] All right, now do it one more time because you want to get more of that ink.

- Kids love creativity and music and video and photography and these types of things that they deal with every single day.

We thought, how could we take that creative pursuits and incorporate that in a space and start to train them around critical thinking and problem solving skillsets?

- It was like a 20-week long program for like digital creatives.

- Our programming is based on three different pillars.

So we do programming and entrepreneurship, so teaching students how to start and run their own businesses.

We do programs on digital creativity.

So a lot of those skill sets that would complement entrepreneurship.

So graphic design, photography, and then we also have innovation programming.

And so that's teaching students how to use the design thinking process to think about the big problems in the world and apply that design thinking process to come up with solutions.

- Deejaying is a perfect trade for you guys to pick up and have in your back pocket.

- [Jason] Classes are taught by industry professionals who donate their time to impart knowledge and wisdom to the students in various aspects of the creative world.

- "Design to Dollars" is a great example of that.

- Again, another example of the same design.

If you want it engraved, this is what it would look like.

And if you want it in color, that's what it would look like.

- It's teaching students entrepreneurial traits on how to price and create products, but it's also teaching them the digital design skills.

- My mom would always ask me, because my mom's an entrepreneur, and she would always ask me, she always asks me this question of, "What sets you apart from other photographers?"

And then I would always be like, "Well, it's my style of photography.

Like, it's how I do things."

And she's like, "No, it's not."

And then that would always confuse me.

But then having someone who could actually like break it down to me and then show me like the actual things, like down to from everything, from how I word like what I do to Google Analytics, right, and how my website shows up.

Like, that helped a lot.

- [Jason] Most of the kids finishing the course programs usually stick around taking advantage of the equipment and space Do Greater has to offer.

They provided it to me like the thing that was like my biggest hurdle, which is like getting the equipment and being able to use it.

- When a student comes in, they have access to all of the technology that we've outfitted the creative lab with.

So whether that be MacBooks or Procreate or Adobe software or cameras that they just wouldn't have access to in another environment.

- [Jason] Do Greater founder and CEO William McNeely is a native West Sider himself.

- My experience is mainly with technology companies.

Most of my career was spent at Apple in educational technologies.

- [Jason] In 2015, William was diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, despite never having been a smoker.

In 2019, he underwent a double lung transplant.

- And so coming out of that transplant, it was like, "Boom, let's move this thing to action.

I think it's great."

It really was birthed out of my desire to, one, take advantage of the second chance that I had.

And, two, understanding how I was affected, particularly around access when I was growing up.

- [Jason] As soon as he was feeling healthy enough, William set in motion Do Greater Charlotte.

- We started 2019 with a mobile technology lab, which was a really a converted food truck, and we converted that into a technology lab filled with iPads and wireless broadband and started taking that in the community.

- [Jason] But when Covid hit, sticking 20 kids in a truck wasn't the best idea.

So they needed a space to call their own.

That's when the facility at Shiloh came about.

- And that allowed us now to try and create this hyper-local environment in a community where kids could literally just walk to and then create these, what we call creative collisions with the professionals in the community, bringing them together in a space to train and mentor kids.

- So in our two years of operating our creative lab at Shiloh, we have served over 600 students.

- [Jason] In just a few short years, Do Greater has made huge inroads in working to improve Charlotte's economic mobility challenge.

- You see the effect that we're having, you see the effect that our programs are having, particularly around these critical skills and thinking through very complex problems.

We call it creative confidence.

You see that confidence happening in our kids and so that drives us.

- [Jason] Do Greater is on the verge of taking its next step and it's a big one, renovating an old building on North Tryon Street in uptown to be its new headquarters.

Plenty of people and local dignitaries were recently on hand for a celebration event.

The new facility will have three floors of creative workspace, lounges, studios, even a coffee bar.

It will give access to even more people and allow connection with professionals in the central business district.