Pride Educational Empowerment Program(PEEP) was started in 2007 by Dee Dixon, CEO of Pride Communications and is based in Charlotte, NC. Ms. Dixon observed the standings of African-American youth in the Charlotte area and felt that the achievement gap among youth here would not remedy itself; consequently PEEP was created to give Charlotte’s African-American youth a chance at a brighter future. PEEP is dedicated to reaching all young people in under-served communities with programs and activities that highlight education, entrepreneurship, financial literacy and career interest development as ways to provide for themselves, their families and their communities.

PEEP is also charged with promoting and supplementing formal education as a pathway out of poverty. A recent study from Harvard University, Cal-Berkeley and the Treasury Department found that the poor have a harder time rising out of poverty here in Charlotte than in any other large city. Charlotte came in dead last for upward mobility for minorities among the 50th largest metropolitan regions in the U.S. Our hope is that by investing in youth at earlier ages, we are able to change the trajectory of their lives and place them in a path for success and ultimately change this statistic.