Future Builders: Why Underserved Communities Can't Wait for AI Access

There's a conversation happening right now about the future. About AI, about automation, about which jobs will disappear and which ones will be created. About who gets left behind and who gets ahead. But here's what's missing from that conversation: the young people who should be at the center of it.

Walk into any community center on San Antonio's East Side, the West Side, South Side. Or go to Watts in LA, Compton, South Central. Talk to the teenagers and young adults there. Ask them what they know about artificial intelligence, about digital marketing, about the skills that every employer is now looking for.

Most of them will tell you the same thing: they've heard about it, but they don't know where to learn it. They know it's important, but they don't know how to access it. That's the gap Community Incubator exists to close. And we're not just closing it in one city. We're building a model that works—and then taking it everywhere it's needed.

The Problem Isn't Just San Antonio. It's Everywhere.

Let's be honest about what's happening across the country right now. We have AI and digital skills programs in most major cities. Universities offer computer science and data analytics. Tech hubs run accelerators and bootcamps. Coworking spaces provide community for innovators. These are all good programs. But here's the reality: if you're a young person from an underserved community, if your parents didn't go to college, if you're working after school to help with bills, if you don't have transportation to get downtown, if nobody in your network has ever mentioned these opportunities—you're not accessing them.

The gap isn't about intelligence or potential. It's about access. And that gap exists in every city. San Antonio. Los Angeles. Houston. Chicago. Philadelphia. Baltimore. The pattern repeats everywhere.

According to research from San Antonio College's own programs, AI and automation are projected to eliminate 85 million jobs globally while creating 97 million new ones. Right here in San Antonio, data science jobs are growing at 56% locally. And this isn't unique to our city—it's happening everywhere.

But who's getting trained for these jobs? Who's learning to work with AI tools? Who's building the digital portfolios that employers are looking for? Mostly, it's the people who already had access. The students at universities. The young professionals in tech hubs. The people whose parents work in these industries. Meanwhile, there are brilliant young people in underserved communities across America—in every city, in every neighborhood—who could be doing this work. They just need someone to show up and teach them. That's what Community Incubator does. We show up. And we're building a model that can scale.

Starting in San Antonio, Scaling Fast

We're launching in San Antonio because it's our home. We know the neighborhoods. We have the relationships. We understand the specific challenges and opportunities here. But from day one, we're building this to scale. Here's the plan: We prove the model in San Antonio through 2026. We run cohorts across multiple neighborhoods—East Side, West Side, South Side. We partner with school districts, community centers, youth organizations. We track outcomes meticulously. We document what works and what doesn't. We build the playbook. Then we expand to school districts surrounding San Antonio—Northside ISD, North East ISD, Judson ISD, and beyond. Different communities, different demographics, same core approach: meet people where they are, bring training to them, connect them to opportunities. And simultaneously, we launch in Los Angeles.

Why LA? Because it's a city with both massive opportunity and massive inequality. Tech industry right next to communities with zero access. The same patterns we see in San Antonio, just at a bigger scale. If our model works in both San Antonio and LA—different regions, different economies, different challenges—then we know it can work anywhere. After that? Houston. Austin. Dallas. Phoenix. Cities where the need is urgent and the model can plug in. This isn't a five-year plan. This is a 2026-2027 rollout. We're not trying to be the only organization doing this work. We're trying to be the organization that proves it can be done at scale, efficiently, and then helps others replicate it.

What We're Actually Doing

Community Incubator isn't another program that waits for students to find us. We're taking AI and digital skills training directly to communities. Here's what that looks like in practice:

We partner with community centers, schools, churches, youth organizations—places where young people already are. We bring the training to them. Not downtown. Not in some tech hub they've never been to. Right in their neighborhood.

Through Temerarii Academy, we're teaching AI fundamentals, digital marketing, and content creation. Not theory. Practical skills. How to use ChatGPT to do research. How to create content that actually gets attention. How to analyze data and understand what it means. How to build a personal brand online.

Through Phazur Labs, we're running hands-on tech projects. Students work with mentors—real practitioners, not just teachers—to build actual projects they can put in a portfolio. They're learning by doing, with guidance from people who do this work professionally.

Through Down x Design, we're connecting creative skills with real opportunities. Design, media, digital content—these aren't just hobbies anymore. They're careers. And we're showing young people how to turn their creativity into something they can get paid for.

Every cohort runs for 8 weeks. We provide the equipment, the software, the instruction, the mentorship. Students come in with curiosity and leave with skills, projects, and connections. And here's the crucial part: this model is replicable. The curriculum works in any city. The partnership structure adapts to any community. The outcomes are measurable and consistent. Sign-ups are open right now at cominc.org. If you're a young person who wants to learn, you can join. If you're an organization that wants to bring this training to your community—in San Antonio, in surrounding districts, or in LA—reach out to us. We're actively building partnerships for our expansion.

The Students We're Serving

Let me tell you about the young people we're working with, because they're the reason this matters.

There's the high school junior from San Antonio's West Side who thought tech wasn't for people like her. She came to one of our workshops because her school counselor insisted. Three weeks into the program, she built her first website. Not a template site. An actual custom-designed website for a local business that her aunt runs. Now she's talking about studying digital marketing in college. A year ago, she didn't think college was an option.

There's the 22-year-old working two jobs, trying to figure out what's next. He'd heard about AI but thought it was something only engineers could understand. We taught him how to use AI tools for content creation, for research, for productivity. He started freelancing on the side, building social media strategies for small businesses. Last month, he quit one of his jobs because the freelance work was paying better. He's building something real.

There's the community center director who was skeptical at first. She'd seen programs come and go, promising big things and delivering little. But she gave us a shot. We ran a 4-week workshop at her center. Thirty kids showed up. By the end, half of them had built projects they were proud of. A few got internships. One got hired. Now she's asking when we can come back and how we can scale this to other centers.

These stories are from San Antonio. But they could be from anywhere. Because the talent is everywhere. The potential is everywhere. What's missing is the access and the investment. When we launch in LA, we'll find the same students. Different neighborhoods, same potential. Same hunger to learn, same barriers to access, same transformation when those barriers come down. This isn't about San Antonio versus LA. It's about building a model that works for underserved communities everywhere.

Why This Matters Beyond Individual Success

When a young person from an underserved community learns digital skills, gets connected to opportunities, and starts building a career—that's not just an individual win. That's a ripple effect that touches entire communities. That person goes home and teaches their younger sibling. They tell their friends. They become proof that it's possible. They start businesses that hire locally. They solve problems that others never even see because they weren't from these communities.

When we talk about building an AI economy or a tech sector—whether in San Antonio, LA, or anywhere else—we need to ask: who are we building it for? If we build it only for the people who already have access, we're not actually building anything new. We're just replicating the same patterns of exclusion that have always existed. But if we build it right—if we build pathways from every neighborhood into these opportunities—we're actually creating something transformative. We're building economies that work for everyone. We're building tech sectors that reflect the diversity of our cities. We're building a future where zip codes don't determine destinies. And when we prove that model works in San Antonio and LA, we can take it everywhere else. That's not rhetoric. That's the actual plan.

The Ecosystem We're Building Toward

Community Incubator isn't working in isolation. We're part of a larger ecosystem of change. This April, right here in San Antonio at Geekdom, we're hosting The Creative Futures Con. April 10th and 11th. Two days of conversations, workshops, panels, and connections around a theme called "Building Worlds." Hundreds of creators, designers, entrepreneurs, technologists, civic leaders—all in one place talking about what's next. Not just tech. Culture. Design. Community impact. Economic growth. All of it intersecting.

The Creative Futures Con features tracks on creative industries, innovation and tech, community and cultural impact, and entrepreneurship and economic growth. Speakers include designers from Heavy Heavy, illustrators who've worked with Adobe and NASA, the City of San Antonio's Senior IT Manager of Emerging Technology, the CEO of Geekdom, venture capitalists from Capital Factory,  health and wellness creators, filmmakers, podcasters, and community leaders from across the city. This is the ecosystem we're building in San Antonio. And we're documenting it, learning from it, and figuring out how to replicate it in LA and beyond.

Because here's our question: who gets to be in rooms like this? Community Incubator exists to make sure our students—the ones from communities that don't typically get invited to these conversations—have a seat at these tables. We're training them so they show up ready. With skills. With projects. With confidence. With something to contribute. When they walk into Creative Futures Con, they're not just attending. They're participating. They're networking. They're pitching ideas. They're getting hired.

That's what access looks like. Not just exposure, but preparation. Not just attendance, but belonging. And when we launch in LA, we'll be building toward similar ecosystems there. Different venues, different networks, same goal: making sure young people from underserved communities have access to the spaces where opportunities are created.

The Future Builders Campaign: Funding Our Launch and Scale

Here's where we need your help.

We're launching the Future Builders campaign to raise $50,000. This money funds our San Antonio expansion and our LA launch. Here's exactly where it goes:

$25,000 for Program Delivery and Expansion

This is the bulk of our fundraising goal because it's the core of what we do. This money funds:

• Neighborhood workshops across San Antonio (East Side, West Side, South Side)
• Initial cohorts in surrounding ISDs as we expand beyond the city
• Launch cohorts in Los Angeles neighborhoods
• Materials, tools, software licenses, and curriculum for five training cohorts serving over 100 young people across both cities
• Mobile training setup—equipment that lets us deliver hands-on learning wherever our students are.

We're not waiting to perfect everything in San Antonio before we launch elsewhere. We're running cohorts in multiple locations simultaneously, learning fast, and adapting the model in real-time.

$15,000 for Instructor and Mentor Support

Our programs work because we have real practitioners teaching them. Not just teachers reading from textbooks, but people who actually do this work professionally. Digital marketers. Designers. AI specialists. Content creators. Entrepreneurs. This funding pays those instructors in both San Antonio and LA. It provides stipends for ongoing mentorship as students build their projects and portfolios. It brings in guest speakers—local tech leaders, entrepreneurs, creatives—to inspire students and make connections in each city.

Quality instruction costs money. And quality instruction is what changes lives and makes the model replicable.

$7,000 for Student Support and Opportunities

This is the funding that removes barriers. Transportation assistance for students who can't afford to get to workshops. Technology access—laptops or tablets for students who need them. Certification fees for industry credentials and professional development. This money also sends students to events like Creative Futures Con and other networking opportunities in their regions. Because learning skills in a classroom is one thing. Getting connected to actual opportunities is another.

We don't want cost to be the reason someone can't participate in San Antonio or LA. This funding makes sure it isn't.

$3,000 for Operations and Outreach

This covers the work of building partnerships with schools, community centers, and youth organizations in both cities. It funds marketing materials to reach more families who need these programs. It supports impact tracking so we can measure outcomes, understand what's working in different contexts, and continuously improve. This is the infrastructure that lets us scale efficiently. If families don't know we exist, we can't serve them. If we don't track our impact rigorously, we can't prove the model works. If we don't build strong community partnerships in each location, we can't scale sustainably.

What Your Support Actually Creates

Let's make this concrete. Here's what different levels of support fund:

Every $500 puts one student through a complete 8-week cohort, whether in San Antonio or LA. Materials, instruction, mentorship, and portfolio development support. One student, fully funded, from start to finish.

Every $1,000 funds a neighborhood workshop serving 20-30 young people in any of our locations. That's an introduction to AI tools, digital skills, and opportunities. Plus follow-up mentorship and connections for the students who want to go deeper.

Every $5,000 funds a full cohort in a new neighborhood—whether that's expanding to another San Antonio ISD or launching in a new LA community. That's 8 weeks of training, hands-on projects, real mentorship, and partnerships with local community organizations.

Every $10,000 funds our launch infrastructure in a new city—the partnerships, marketing, and community outreach that makes sustainable expansion possible.

When we talk about fundraising goals, it's easy for the numbers to feel abstract. But these are the real impacts. Real students. Real neighborhoods. Real pathways being built across multiple cities.

Sponsorship Opportunities: Invest in a Scalable Model

For businesses and organizations, we're offering structured sponsorship levels that go beyond just donating. These are partnership opportunities that benefit you while supporting the mission.

Platinum Sponsors ($10,000+) get:

• Logo placement on all Future Builders and Community Incubator marketing materials across all locations
• Recognition in our keynote speech and at all 2026 Community Incubator events (San Antonio and LA)
• Featured partner spotlight on our website and social media
• VIP access to Creative Futures Con in April 2026
• Direct pipeline access to hire trained graduates from multiple markets
• Quarterly impact reports showing outcomes across all our cities
• Opportunity to host workshops or speak at cohort graduations in multiple locations
• First access to expansion cities as we scale

This isn't just philanthropy. This is talent pipeline development across multiple markets. You're funding the training of potential employees in the cities where you operate while building your brand as a community partner.

Gold Sponsors ($1,000+) get logo placement on event materials, recognition at all 2026 events, partner spotlight on our website, access to Creative Futures Con networking sessions, connection to our hiring pipeline across markets, and semi-annual impact reports.

Silver Sponsors ($100+) are listed as supporters on our website, recognized at the Future Builders event, receive email updates on program impact across all locations, and get invitations to cohort showcase events where they can see student work firsthand.

Community Supporters at any level receive recognition in our monthly newsletter and updates on student success stories from all our communities. Every level of support matters. Because every donation—whether it's $50 or $50,000—directly funds student access to training that can change their trajectory, and helps us prove this model works at scale.

Why This Is Urgent

Here's the truth: we can't wait. Every month we delay is another cohort of young people who fall further behind—not just in San Antonio, but everywhere. Every neighborhood we don't reach is another group of talented kids who think tech isn't for them. Every city we don't launch in is thousands of students missing opportunity. The AI revolution isn't coming. It's here. Jobs are changing right now. Skills requirements are shifting right now. Companies are hiring right now. And right now, most young people in underserved communities across America aren't prepared for these opportunities. Not because they can't be. But because nobody has invested in preparing them.

That's what this campaign is about. Closing that gap. Creating those pathways. Proving the model. Scaling fast. Not in five years. Not eventually. Now.

We're Building This to Share

Let me be clear about something important: Community Incubator isn't trying to be the only organization doing this work. We're not building an empire. We're building a model that works and can be replicated. If another organization in Houston or Chicago or Baltimore wants to do exactly what we're doing, we'll help them. We'll share our curriculum, our partnership structures, our measurement tools. We'll show them what works and what doesn't.

What we're trying to prove is that this can be done efficiently, sustainably, and at scale. Once we prove that in San Antonio and LA, the model becomes available to anyone who wants to use it. But somebody has to build it first. Somebody has to show up consistently, month after month, city after city, proving that it works. That's what Community Incubator is committed to doing.

How You Can Get Involved

There are multiple ways to be part of this:

• If you're a young person in San Antonio or LA: Sign up at cominc.org. Our programs are open. No prerequisites. Just show up ready to learn.
• If you're a parent or educator: Spread the word. Tell young people in your network about these opportunities. Help us reach the students who need this most.
• If you're in a surrounding ISD: Reach out about bringing our programs to your district. We're actively expanding and looking for school partners.
• If you're a donor: Visit cominc.org/sponsorship-and-donations. Choose your sponsorship level or make a donation of any amount. Every dollar goes directly to program delivery and expansion.
• If you're an employer with operations in multiple cities: Partner with us. Get access to our hiring pipeline across markets. Host workshops. Provide internships. Hire our graduates. They're ready.
• If you're a community organization in San Antonio or LA: Reach out to bring training to your location. We come to you.
• If you're in another city and want to replicate this model: Contact us. We're building this to share.
• If you're a mentor: We need professionals willing to guide students as they build projects. A few hours a month can change a young person's trajectory.

There's a role for everyone in this work.

The Choice We're Making

Here's what this really comes down to:

We're at a moment where we can choose what kind of country we want to be. We can build an AI economy and tech sectors that only work for people who already have access. Or we can build ones that create pathways from every neighborhood in every city.

We can watch as automation eliminates jobs and hope people figure it out on their own. Or we can invest in preparing everyone for the jobs that are being created.

We can talk about innovation and entrepreneurship while ignoring the talented young people in underserved communities. Or we can actively work to include them.

These aren't abstract policy questions. These are choices we're making right now with how we invest our time, our money, our attention.

Community Incubator has made our choice. We're building pathways. We're investing in people. We're showing up in neighborhoods across San Antonio, surrounding ISDs, Los Angeles, and soon other cities to make sure nobody gets left behind. The Future Builders campaign is our invitation to you to make that choice with us.

$50,000 to launch and scale a model that works. $50,000 to train over 100 young people across multiple cities this year. $50,000 to prove that when you invest in people and meet them where they are, incredible things happen—and the model can scale.

That's not a big budget for the impact we're creating. It's actually remarkably efficient. But it's enough to change lives in multiple cities. Enough to build real pathways. Enough to prove that this works beyond one location.

This Work Scales Fast

One last thing: this isn't a slow burn. This is rapid expansion. San Antonio launch: happening now. Surrounding ISDs: 2026. LA launch: 2026. Additional cities: 2027.

After Future Builders, we're running cohorts in San Antonio. Simultaneously building partnerships in surrounding districts. Simultaneously launching in LA. We're not doing this sequentially. We're doing it in parallel because the need is urgent everywhere.

The $50,000 we raise through this campaign funds our 2026 multi-city expansion. But the work continues and accelerates beyond that. This is a long-term commitment to building pathways in every city that needs them. We're inviting you to be part of it from the beginning—as a donor, as a partner, as an employer, as a mentor, as someone who believes that talent is everywhere but opportunity isn't, and that we can change that.

Because the future we're building isn't something that happens overnight or in one city. It's something we construct together, one student at a time, one neighborhood at a time, one city at a time.

That's what Future Builders means. Not just a fundraising campaign. A scalable model. A commitment. A choice to build pathways instead of walls, and to build them everywhere they're needed.

Visit cominc.org today. Make your donation. Choose your sponsorship level. Sign up for programs if you're in San Antonio or LA. Reach out about partnerships if you're in a surrounding ISD. Contact us if you're in another city and want to bring this model there.

Let's build this future together. Across every city. For every community. Because young people in underserved communities can't wait. Not in San Antonio. Not in LA. Not anywhere. And neither should we.

Community Incubator

Building scalable pathways to AI and digital skills for underserved communities. Starting in San Antonio. Expanding to surrounding ISDs and Los Angeles. Coming to your city soon.

Learn more and donate: https://www.cominc.org/sponsorship-and-donations
Save the date: Creative Futures Con - April 10-11, 2026