Bridgemakers

There is nothing more foundational that can be done to change our world than raise healthy young people. Bridgemakers is a movement of young leaders creating more young leaders; we cultivate young leaders to transform youth-serving systems so that we can live in purpose, prosperity, and power. 

In 2018, two of our founding members–Walter Cortina and Lincoln Bacal–started a group called Changemakers: a student-led school improvement seminar identifying areas for improvement in their school and designing solutions alongside staff. They created and implemented a mentorship program to ensure every student had a trusted adult to support them through their journey in high school. This was the first seed planted to cultivate the youth-led movement of Bridgemakers.

In 2020, as the pandemic hit, tens of thousands of youth in Minnesota lost their service work jobs and by extension, their means to support themself and their family. A 1939 law barred high school students from accessing unemployment benefits, solely based on their enrollment status in high school. Faced with the option of dropping out of high school or not getting the benefits they needed to survive, we chose neither. We led an intergenerational coalition of lobbyists, journalists, and stakeholders in a successful year-long effort to change the discriminatory state law in the only divided legislature in the country at the time. $35 million in benefits was paid out to over 20,000 students, and students are now covered under unemployment insurance law permanently.

These life changing experiences uncovered our secret sauce to make transformational change in young people’s lives; intergenerational mentorship, storytelling, and amplifying youth voice. We took these principles and founded Bridgemakers. 

Now, in 2024, we operate as a 501c3 nonprofit fulfilling our mission of cultivating young leaders to transform youth serving systems.