Meet Monnie Bush | Founder & C.E.O.

We had the good fortune of connecting with Monnie Bush and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Monnie, every day, we about how much execution matters, but we think ideas matter as well. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
As a police officer, I saw many families, especially single mothers and grandparents, struggle to raise their teenage sons. Without a strong, engaged father figure, they would often turn to the police when the teenager became defiant. When an intervention wasn’t successful and rarely was, I frequently saw these young men go from rebellious to criminal behavior. Now, the young man is in the criminal justice system, which only exposed him to other, more hardened criminals and desensitized him to the fear of the criminal justice system. As a Christian, I wanted to help these young men find an alternative to the street and the families, an alternative to the system. However, after doing research, I discovered there were no long-term, healthy programs in our community.
 

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
In 2009, after seeing the lack of resources, with the support of my wife, I opened the Victory Project, Inc., a faith-based 501c3 nonprofit after-school program serving disengaged young men 12 – 18 years old who volunteer to participate.

Our goal is to break generational poverty, often referred to as the three pillars of poverty, in the lives of teenagers. These pillars are: 1. I was dropping out of high school, 2. Getting a criminal history, and 3. Having a baby before marriage.

Our curriculum is based on what I learned from those we served, which we call the three E’s: Education, Entrepreneurship, and Enlightenment.

Education – we offer homework assistance, school visits, and career exploration
Entrepreneurship – we have our own small business, which employs our students on the weekends, where they earn an income and learn how to develop a strong work ethic.
Enlightenment—We offer Bible study, worship, charter development classes, and nightly dinner and are open six days a week, year-round, even on holidays. The streets don’t close, and that’s our competition.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
We have a number of great places to visit in the Dayton Region. Here are just a few: US Air Force Museum
The Wright Brothers Museum
The Dayton Art Institute
The Dayton Dragons Baseball
Kings Island Amusement Park
Five Rivers MetroParks
Hundreds of miles of well-maintained bikeways – many along rivers
The Oregon District – restaurants, shops and clubs
The Village of Yellow Springs – shops, restaurants, and incredible State Parks – Is best known as the home of Dave Chappell
Young Dairy – famous local ice cream

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Many people have invested in me over the years. My parents, especially my father and grandfather, were my role models. I saw them sacrifice for their families by working difficult jobs to provide for us. I also noticed how their wives played a vital role in balancing of our family dynamncs. For me, I needed the influence of both parents to keep my form straying too far away.

We were not weathly growing up, but we had consistency; food, housing, and love. At times, there was significant conflict between my partners over money, but overall it was a stable environment.

They also exposed me to my faith at an early age, while I didn’t follow many of the Christian tenats growong up, but the seed was planted and played a monumental role later in life.

Website: victoryproject.org

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/victory-project/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/VictoryProject