The Entrepreneurial Development Institute (TEDI)

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." The success of Melissa Bradley's non-profit organization, "The Entrepreneurial Development Institute," is proof of the power behind the age-old cliché. Crises facing youth in underserved communities, such as drugs, crime, poverty, and academic underachievement, are often dealt with using the "band-aid approach:" temporary fixes for long-term problems, like a band-aid on a broken bone. When Bradley founded TEDI in 1991, she was looking to find a more permanent solution to these problems. Located in Washington, D.C., TEDI aims to bring economic growth and community empowerment to disadvantaged youth and their families. TEDI helps these young people to develop entrepreneurial and work skills, with the hope that this training will encourage them to create small businesses, and in doing so boost participant self-esteem and lead to decreased crime and drug rates and increased academic success.