Kinston Teens CEO Chris Suggs, center, teamed up with Jaylan Scott, left, and Craig Robey to create Youth Impact Strategies, a youth engagement consulting firm for businesses, organizations and political campaigns. Submitted photo

An online game helped bring a trio of young entrepreneurs to a grand undertaking.

Kinston Teens founder and CEO Chris Suggs, along with Jaylan Scott and Craig Robey, teamed up to create Youth Impact Strategies, a youth engagement consulting firm for businesses, organizations and political campaigns. The trio became connected from the virtual world and social network service “SmallWorlds” and came up with ideas to help out their communities together for years, culminating to the new venture.  

“We’ve been trying to come up with something for a long time and putting our talents together,” Robey said. “Then Jaylan came up with the idea about consulting people, Chris put things together and here we are.”

The trio met for the first time in Atlanta in January 2017 and have continued their crusades to help empower young people, with Suggs and Scott the "youngsters" at age 18 and Robey the “elder statesman” at 19.

“For me, it’s about giving youth a seat at the table,” Scott said. “Younger leadership is valuable — one thing I’ve heard often from people is ‘the world hasn’t corrupted you yet.’ I’m a dreamer and I want others my age to live out their dreams. I feel like nobody can help impact the youth like us, and we want to assist.”

Scott, who will attend Georgia State next month, is from Macon, Ga., and has worked with numerous political organizations, including as a regional director for the Young Democrats of Georgia and a deputy finance director for the Young Democrats of America.

Robey is a Valdosta, Ga., native, a rising sophomore at Florida State University and is a co-founder of Black Youth Network, a national network of young African-American leaders and entrepreneurs, allowing individuals the opportunity to advocate issues in their communities.

Suggs, a Kinston High School graduate and rising sophomore at UNC, said he’s excited for this organization and believes it will be a successful endeavor.  

“All three of us have been working as entrepreneurs and leaders in our local communities, and we felt like this was a great way to utilize our skills and passion,” Suggs said. “We’ve helped others start businesses and we want to continue doing so. My work with Kinston Teens is an example of how a great idea can turn into a great community impact and I’m looking forward to using my expertise to help other individuals launch their great ideas.”

For more information on Youth Impact Strategies, go to youthimpactstrategies.com.