Roxeann Cobb

Making dreams a reality

“I give Make Startups credit for making my dream a reality,” says Cobb. “I knew I had a love for children, but I didn’t know all the paperwork necessary or the attitude I had to have going in to talk to people. It helped me realize it can be a career.”

In the small town of Washington, Georgia, where pillared white homes and charming local shops line the streets of its downtown, the leading cause of death for teenagers is homicide. Roxeann Cobb grew up in Washington when it was safe for her and her friends to walk down the street at night. Now, parents struggle to keep their children indoors and safe from drugs and gang violence.

As a teen pregnancy prevention facilitator, Cobb worked with children ages 13 to 18 in the Wilkes County school system. It gave her a chance to get to know children throughout the county and in her neighborhood, who started coming to her home as a safe space to gather and meet friends. With their parents’ permission, Cobb would grill hotdogs; take the children to the movies; and have them make and take food to the homeless. They’d also talk—about what it was like growing up in the neighborhood, about school, about what they wanted to do next.

“It’s kind of like 4H Club,” Cobb remembers one of the kids saying, “except it’s not.” It was those kids, says Cobb, who decided to name their group 4E, for Educate, Empower, Expose and Encourage—to teach kids to make better choices and give them the support they sometimes weren’t getting at home.

Cobb ran the club with her own money and some help from donations, after filing for 4E to become a nonprofit in 2019. But then utility bills on the building she was renting from the city for $1 a year shot up to $1,000 a month, and donations dried up. 4E had had some momentum, but Cobb wasn’t sure how to keep that momentum going so her club wouldn’t just stay open but thrive. Cobb had wanted to make 4E a nonprofit because she knew she needed to run it like a business, not a hobby. So, she decided to take that a step further.

Cobb had already connected with WorkSource Georgia, hoping for help in finding a job so she could support 4E. But then WorkSource Georgia career coach Alvin Banks heard Cobb express her passion for helping at-risk youth. It was Banks who encouraged her to check out the Make Startups program.

“I thought it would allow me to be official, to do business the way it’s supposed to be done in the first place”

— ROXEANN COBB

“I thought it would allow me to be official, to do business the way it’s supposed to be done in the first place,” says Cobb, remembering what she thought when she heard about Make Startups. “All I knew is I had love for the children. I didn’t know the business part.”

With help from a WorkSource Georgia scholarship, Cobb enrolled in Make Startups. Her instructor and mentor Michael Newton worked with her over the three months of the program and during the six-month mentorship. She learned how to write her first business plan and how to recruit board members. She also learned about possible grants and how to apply for them, instead of relying on her own money and one-off sponsorships.

And for someone who was used to doing it all on her own, she also learned the invaluable art of networking and how to partner with other organizations.

Today, 4E serves about 25 youth in Washington. Cobb’s goal by the end of 2023 is to grow that number to 100 and to raise $100,000 in grant support. She’s planning to apply in 2024 for WorkSource Georgia’s next grant cycle, and in the meantime, Banks and La Tunya Goodwin, executive director of WorkSource East Central Georgia, are planning to partner with her on other possible grant proposals.

Cobb has also found support from a few new organizations, including the VFW in Washington, which has offered monthly event space, and the Washington library, which recently held a social media wellness workshop for members of 4E and the general public ages 10 to 18. Cares for Kids Augusta is another new partner that is providing 4E members with backpacks and supplies, books, holiday gifts and more.