Welcome to Business Better! Where I interview entrepreneurs who are changing the world. On today’s episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Amy Chasan. Amy Chasan is an educator, baker, and businesswoman, with a lifelong commitment to removing the social class barriers that limit opportunities for youth from marginalized communities. She has taught, administered, evaluated, coached, made grants, and developed various curricula focused on leadership, entrepreneurship, identity and self-expression.
Amy started Sweet Generation as a passion project in 2009, baking from her tiny home kitchen, while she worked full-time for the NYC Department of Youth & Community Development (DYCD). There she was able to support and develop some wonderful academic and enrichment programs, but lack of funding plagued the programs and every year budgets were cut significantly. As her work became more challenging, Amy turned to baking as her own personal creative outlet. What started out as a pet project quickly evolved into more than just a hobby. Before she knew it, she was being hired to cater weddings, showers, art events and celebrity parties. While getting her Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Management from Milano School for Public and Urban Policy at The New School and specializing in Social Entrepreneurship, she began to think about how she could connect her creative outlet with her education and her professional career in youth development.
Amy left her job at DYCD in 2012 to turn Sweet Generation into a mission-driven organization that works to remove barriers for youth from historically marginalized communities by creating impactful opportunities to learn real-world, tangible job skills while developing their interpersonal, entrepreneurial thinking, and leadership abilities.
