East Atlanta Kids Club is looking to build a youth-powered skateshop in southeast Atlanta - a small storefront where skate culture, teen creativity, and neighborhood belonging come together.
This will not be a typical retail store. It will be a micro-shop with a mission - a place to sell skate goods, youth-designed merchandise, and custom products while creating a visible extension of our Teen Club makerspace and creative programming.
We’re raising the funds needed to bring the space to life, and we’d love for you to help us build it. We have a real opportunity to secure and activate this space now, but early support is what makes that possible.
Why This Matters
For many young people, especially teens, belonging starts with having spaces that feel real.
At East Atlanta Kids Club, we’ve spent years (28 years to be precise) creating those spaces through no-cost afterschool programs, summer camp, counseling, and Teen Club. Recently, we’ve expanded our Teen Club space to include a podcast studio, creative arts lab, and makerspace, giving young people the tools to create, design, and express themselves.
This skateshop is the next step in this vision. We envision a small, public-facing space where:
- youth creativity becomes visible and intentional
- neighborhood culture is reflected and celebrated
- young people can see themselves in something real and valued
This skateshop builds on real youth infrastructure we already operate, and it creates real opportunity.
What We’re Building
We’re transforming a storefront in East Atlanta into a community skateshop that will include:
- A curated selection of skate goods and apparel
- Youth-designed and locally produced merchandise
- A small customization and build/repair area
- A visible extension of Teen Club’s creative work
- A welcoming, neighborhood-rooted retail space
It will be simple, intentional, and built to grow over time.
What Your Gift Will Fund
Your support will help cover the real costs of opening the space, including:
- Storefront preparation and finishing
- Shelving, display systems, and fixtures
- Signage and branding
- Opening inventory
- Point-of-sale and security setup
- Basic equipment for customization and display
- Launch and activation costs (occupancy expenses)
This campaign is focused on getting the doors open the right way so that the space is safe, functional, and ready to serve the community.
Initial Campaign Goal
We have established a meaningful goal of $25,000. While this won't fully fund this expansion, it will demonstrate that this vision is supported by the folks who are closest to it - our community! It will empower us to:
- install fixtures and signage
- purchase opening inventory
- open with a strong, intentional foundation
- cover initial occupancy expenses
A Note from Ryan
To my East Atlanta neighbors,
There are a few different reasons we’re pursuing this skateshop. Some of them are practical. Some of them are strategic. The truth is, for me, this is also personal.
I grew up skating. I didn't skate at a high level in a way that would have impressed anyone. I skated the way lots of kids and teens do, spending long stretches of time outside, figuring things out, failing over and over, and slowly getting better at something that felt like it belonged to me and my friends.
It was an outlet and an escape that didn't require dues, uniforms, and transportation the way team sports did. It gave structure to time that otherwise would have been unstructured. Critically, it created a sense of identity and belonging that didn’t depend on being the best at anything else.
Over the last few years, as we’ve expanded Teen Club at East Atlanta Kids Club, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means for young people to have spaces that feel real. That is, spaces that aren't supervised in a way that feels transactional, aren't overly programmed, and aren't temporary.
There’s a lot of civic discourse right now about young people gathering in public spaces - what gets labeled as “teen takeovers,” what gets framed as disruption, and how our communities might respond.
Often, the responses default toward restriction, enforcement, or removal. While I understand where those reactions come from, I think they sometimes miss something more fundamental.
Most young people are not looking for trouble. They are looking for places to go and communities where they belong. If we want different outcomes, we have to be willing to build different kinds of spaces. That is, we have to build spaces that invite participation instead of pushing it away; that offer identity and belonging instead of surveillance; that are rooted in culture, creativity, and community.
That’s what we’re trying to do here on a very small, very practical scale.
At East Atlanta Kids Club, we’ve spent 28 years building programs that support young people and families in southeast Atlanta: afterschool, summer camp, counseling, food security, Teen Club. More recently, we’ve invested in creative and maker-focused work with teens: a podcast studio, a small production space, a film camp, and myriad opportunities to design and create. That we, for what it's worth, includes you. We have only been able to do this critical work because you have stood alongside us
This skateshop is a natural extension of that work and your care. It's a small storefront, a visible space, and a place where youth culture, creativity, and community intersect in a way that the neighborhood can actually see and participate in.
It will not solve everything, but it can be one more place where a young person can walk in, spend time, feel a sense of ownership, and begin to see themselves differently.
I’m also writing this as a parent. My kids are still young, but like a lot of families here, we’re thinking about what it means to grow up in this neighborhood. What kinds of spaces will exist for them as they get older? Where will they go? What will feel like it belongs to them?
I want them to grow up in a place where young people are not treated as a problem to manage or as a deficit by default, but as a part of the community to invest in - as assets that we desperately need to nourish. That future doesn’t just happen. It’s something we have to build together intentionally, piece-by-piece.
This skateshop is one small piece of that work. It’s a modest space, and we’re approaching it that way. At the same time, we believe it can carry real meaning for the young people we serve, for the neighborhood, and for the broader idea of what community can look like when we choose to invest in it. If you choose to support this effort, you’re not just helping us open a storefront. You’re helping us create another place where young people in southeast Atlanta can build, belong, and be part of something that feels like theirs.
That matters now, as it has for the last 28 years, and as it will for the years to come.
Thank you for being part of this work and for holding this vision of community with us!
Ryan Downey
Executive Director
East Atlanta Kids Club
FAQs
Is this a nonprofit program or a business?
This is a mission-driven initiative of East Atlanta Kids Club. The skateshop is designed to expand youth opportunity, strengthen Teen Club’s creative ecosystem, and support EAKC’s long-term sustainability. So...both. Increasingly, nonprofits need to identify sources of earned revenue as public funding across all sources is constrained. We don't believe that the best way to do that is to charge for critical childcare needs, so we are thinking creatively, and this is where we have landed purposefully.
Will youth be involved?
Yes. Youth creativity and participation are central to the vision, including opportunities for product design, production, and storytelling. We also anticipate Teen Club members working in the shop under the guidance of EAKC staff as an ideal future state.
What happens if you exceed the goal?
Additional funds will strengthen the space, expand youth-facing creative capacity, and support long-term success. This goal is meant to be a catalyzing investment that gets us started, and it will also empower us to present this model to philanthropic supporters and others with clear community buy-in. We want to multiply your support!
What if you don’t reach the goal?
Funds raised will still be used to support startup costs and help determine the strongest path forward for this initiative.
Are there ways to help beyond making a donation?
Yes. Money helps, but it’s not the only thing that moves work like this forward. We’d love to hear from people who can open doors, make introductions, volunteer, serve, advise, or help us build the right network around this project.
That might look like:
- introducing us to funders or sponsors
- connecting us to skate, retail, arts, or creative industry folks
- exploring board service or longer-term advisory support
- volunteering time, labor, or specialized skills
- helping with in-kind goods, equipment, or buildout needs
- sharing this campaign with people who would care about it
A lot of what makes a project like this viable is community belief translated into action.
You can reach out to us at rdowney@eastatlantakids.org!
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