Mike Long

Mike Long, Founder and Executive Director of SailFuture, is focused on developing programs and services that provide young people with a path to economic freedom and social mobility.  SailFuture, a proud 2022 Yass Prize Award Finalist, is transforming the lives of youth at risk.  Mike has boldly created an innovative social services agency that provides transformative private education, foster care, job training and juvenile justice programs.  

Mike Long’s teenage years weren’t easy. While shuffling back and forth between his divorced parents and desperate for money and stability, Mike turned to theft, stealing credit cards, guns, and cars. He soon found himself expelled from high school and incarcerated in various residential juvenile justice facilities in Florida. His experiences in the juvenile justice system left him and his peers uninspired and in many cases, feeling oppressed. While Mike ultimately emerged from the system and enrolled in New College of Florida where he majored in public policy, many of his peers were less fortunate, some remain incarcerated and others have passed away. Mike is passionately directing his skills and time to develop a more effective and inspiring option for youth struggling in Florida’s juvenile justice and child welfare system.