Fahd Vahidy is co-founding partner of Street Smart Ventures, a consulting firm that promotes entrepreneurship and economic well-being of local community, links innovative strategies that support young entrepreneurs in work and education, and builds individual and community assets in targeted neighborhoods.

Fahd’s professional work experience includes the development, operation and oversight of youth and adult programs. He has direct experience with local and national workforce initiatives as well as private sector fee-for-service models.

Prior to Street Smart Ventures, Fahd was the Assistant Director of Our Piece of the Pie (OPP), a nationally recognized youth employment program that integrated work readiness and life skills within a structured youth business model. Under his leadership, OPP received a PEPNet 2002 award from the National Youth Employment Coalition and Federal Department of Labor to recognize best practices in the fields of youth employment and positive youth development.

Mr. Vahidy has a graduate degree in Counseling Psychology from UCONN Neag School of Education, where he concentrated on individual and group counseling, career counseling, research methods, and appraisal. His areas of expertise include services for urban youth, minority college students, and youth workers. He is a member of American Counseling Association, National Employment Counseling Association, and National Career Development Association. Community affiliations have included CT Juvenile Justice Alliance (Co-Chair), Mayor’s Task Force in Youth Employment 2002 (Hartford), UCONN Asian American Cultural Center (Advisory Board), Plowshares Institute for Community Conflict Transformation; Greater Hartford Youth Development Practitioner Academy (Advisory Board), and Academy for Educational Development’s National Training Institute for Community Youth Work, CT Public Allies (Advisory Board), Youth Rights Media (Board).

e-mail: fvahidy@ssventures.com