When Sam Bracken left Las Vegas for Atlanta after winning a full-ride football scholarship to the Georgia Institute of Technology, he packed everything he owned in an orange duffel bag and left behind a life of homelessness, poverty and abuse.

“In much the same way that Sam did, we want young people to pack their bags with hope and a dream for the future. We also want to encourage corporations and organizations to pack those same bags with connections to communities and tools that will help young people succeed on their journeys. Our vision is to make the orange duffel bag a symbol of hope for at-risk youth like the pink ribbon has become for breast cancer. Please join us on this adventure.” – Sam Bracken and Echo Garrett, authors of My Orange Duffel Bag: A Journey to Radical Change

We’ve established The Orange Duffel Bag Foundation as a nonprofit to show at-risk youth in a tangible way that people care about them and to help provide them with life skills training and resources that will aid them on their paths to self-sufficiency.