About Us

The Bankole Thompson Center is a national youth empowerment organization that helps prepare young people for leadership roles by helping them grow their talents and skills in an atmosphere that enables them to find a sense of achievement and prepare them for remarkable leadership careers of the future to become change agents in their communities. 

The Center is named after Bankole Thompson, the nationally acclaimed Detroit journalist, thought leader, author, cultural critic, and standard-bearer for economic justice issues, whose longstanding and influential work in championing issues impacting some of the nation’s underserved communities exemplifies boldness, courage, excellence and transformational leadership. 

The Center is a call to invest in the next generation with intention, not rhetoric. A call to build something worthy of the talent, brilliance and potential that already exists in our young people. Because too often, we ask young people to rise without giving them the structure to stand on. We celebrate their promise but we underinvest in their preparation. We talk about leadership but we fail to build leaders. 

The Center works to promote excellence and cultivate a generation of disciplined, ethical and visionary young leaders committed to excellence, equity and transformative impact in their communities and beyond. 

The Center’s vision is creating a world where young people are equipped, empowered and ready to lead with excellence by challenging inequality, shaping opportunity and building a more just society. 

The Center is a place where potential will be sharpened into purpose, where discipline will meet opportunity, and where young people will be challenged not just to dream but to deliver. 

The Bankole Thompson Center is more just a center. It is built on a simple but urgent belief that excellence is not accidental. It is developed. It is developed through exposure, expectation and accountability. 

The Center is a commitment to raising expectations, to challenge mediocrity and prepare young people not just to succeed within systems, but to transform them. Because excellence is not optional when the mission is justice.