Empowering Youth 2017 Conference

Our second Empowering Youth Leadership Conference was a big success this spring.  Twenty middle school students participated in the day-long event which included several activities to help develop personal leadership skills.

We kicked off the day with setting our group norms and then brainstormed how we would change the world.  This activity led to our Skype with students in Uganda where we discussed cultural differences and similarities.  The Skype visit is always one of the highlights for students in both the U.S. and Uganda.

A new activity this year was the addition of a “Money Smart” module where participants learned about assets and liabilities, credit and debt, and the compound effect and savings.  This seemed to have a big impact on the students as they are still talking about it!

Watching teens create a vision for their future as they build their vision boards is incredibly rewarding.  Students have said that this is one of their favorite activities of the conference.

We were lucky to have some of last year’s participants return and help with the planning, setup and running of the activities. They’ve asked if they can return and help again next year!  Plans are underway for a fall 2017 conference to include more students from several different schools. We are currently exploring funding through sponsorships.  If you are interested in investing in this worthwhile program, you can contact us or go to our donor page.