Let's Get Talking (LGT) provides a safe space for community members, family and friends to listen, learn, and gain some wisdom from some of the best business minds in the Eayikes community. We also want to deepen connections and strengthen community bonds.

Season 08: Entrepreneurship, Investments and Business

The Panelists

Alex, Kyle & Ray were first exposed to the power of safe spaces, childlike wonder, and community in the Student Parent Orientation Program at UC Irvine. Entering college, they (and many like us) struggled with anxieties around identity and belonging. As incoming students, it set each of them on a path towards empowerment and in the ensuing years as student volunteers, they joined the SPOP community and met lifelong friends who’d later help them build Eayikes (@eayikes)– their expression of that same transformational power. They remained friends after graduation and gained community experience through organizing camps at festivals and other social experiences. Railing against traditional notions of “adulting,” they pursued a shared desire to build community and do something meaningful with their network. During the day, Kyle works in Blockchain and Social Media, while Alex and Ray in social-emotional education. For Eayikes, Kyle serves as Board Chairman, Alex as Executive Director, and Ray as Culture Director.

ABOUT EAYIKES

Starting in 2013, Eayikes connected youth from neighborhoods across the socioeconomic spectrum through arts & wilderness camps. We harnessed the power of safe space our powerful community of young professionals serving as mentors who model courage, compassion, and childlike-wonder.

We facilitated a-ha moments by cultivating an open mind to others, emphasizing activities centered on the sharing of life experiences and challenging comfort zones to self-reflect, self-explore, and build self-esteem. Our practice and learning experiences from these years continues to inform and re-affirm our path. Youth programming is able to be offered through school contracts and grants.

As our youth programs grew and more young professionals displayed change from their participation, we began to recognize the need for courage, compassion, and childlike-wonder for adults. We believe our vision of a more just and compassionate world will be more quickly attained if more adults are building community and connection in the world. Wondershop events such as Wonderfull Wednesdays simply grew from six community members coming together on a Wednesday after work. Organically, the adult community bloomed all around us. Now, we’ve channeled our collective courage, compassion, and wonder towards our most marginalized neighbors, the unhoused of LA & OC, as well as intersected our love for the outdoors and healing power of Mother Nature to create an annual camping experience.

We are committed to uplifting community health, creating more equity, and doing this work intergenerationally, as we begin seeing a return of the youth who we’ve mentored taking on larger roles as young adults in Eayikes.

22/05/21 Let's Get Talking! (s08.03) - Entrepreneurship, Investments and Business