Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez boost program that teaches inner city kids about real estate

Project Destined teaches kids how to value and finance local apartment buildings, and then given the opportunity to share in real profits from those properties. Alex Rodriguez and Jennifer Lopez are two of the program's biggest backers. How do you get inner-city kids off the streets? Give them a vested interest in those streets and a stake in the property around them. That is the philosophy behind a new program that teaches teens financial literacy through investments in real estate. Kids are taught how to value and finance local apartment buildings, and then given the opportunity to share in real profits from those properties. "Everything we do is pragmatic. You buy a building and then they share in the upside," said Cedric Bobo, principal and co-founder of Project Destined. "Real estate is tangible, and having grown up in a household where you've seen your parents lose your home, real estate plays an ever-present part of your life," said Bobo, who has been called one of the most powerful black investors on Wall Street. "I also think it's easy to understand for kids, so my philosophy in life is I want you to be a part of your neighborhood's change, I don't want you just to be watching."