
The Name
The name Spentem is a portmanteau that combines our three core values .
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Spirit – Thinking critically about the moral fabric of who you are and how the collective identity of family and friends influences the choices you make in life
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Enterprise – Adopting an abundant mindset through gaining financial literacy and envisioning a sustainable future void of economic insecurity
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Empathy – Activating a spirit of service within yourself so that those in proximity to you can benefit from your altruism
How We Do It
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Spentem Store: The Spentem teaching store serves as platform to facilitate workshops for the community and recruit and instruct young people through our Leadership Course. We use “statement apparel” to address larger-themed issues such as racism, the school to prison pipeline, ethics, activism and alternatives to violence. In addition, we facilitate a program that allows young people to sell all our products to earn money for themselves.
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Spentem Mobile App: The Spentem mobile app is civil rights 2.0. Users can choose from six categories of injustice and upload their short video-testimonials of any problems of injustice they are encountering in their lives. Viewers can then watch and choose to become allies by performing whatever peaceful 3 social justice action is requested by the user. These actions may include calling correction facilities, attending rallies, emailing politicians or stores, and other things.
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Spentem Sparkling Honey Water: Spentem Sparkling Honey Water is our all natural exclusively produced FDA approved beverage. We use the proceeds from the sales of our sparkling water to fund youth business plans. In addition, youth can use a digital promo code and sell Spentem apparel and sparkling water to earn money toward their own business plans. We walk them through the process from idea to LLC and mentor them the entire time.
Our Start
Spentem was founded by prison chaplain Imam Taymullah Abdur-Rahman in 2012, after he witnessed young men being incarcerated as teenagers with sentences amounting to decades of time. He wanted to address several components of injustice relating to prisoners, their families, the criminal justice system itself, and at-risk youth. With a decade in business, Spentem has delivered concrete engagement strategies to help approximately 150 young men make positive choices and ultimately avoid legal troubles and incarceration.