I was impressed to learn that a lot of the aspects of youth organizing that I find important (compensating youth for their work, encouraging youth to have their own agenda separate from RMCLC's agenda, even if those issues overlap at some points, and showing empathy and understanding for when life gets in the way by allowing open membership without setting attendance requirements) have already been implemented by RMCLC.

I feel strongly that my engagement, empowerment, and rapport-building skills will really benefit my ability to make a connectionconnections and guide young leaders in finding and using their voice and thatvoices. In addition, my experience in process development and initiating quality improvement and monitoring efforts from a client-centered perspective will be an asset in expanding the Empowerment Group to include an alumni arm and to other geographical areas. I believe this is on my resume, but as an FFRC intern, when the Family Leadership Training Institute (FLTI) Director was struggling to identify why family leaders lost momentum and ceased their community projects after graduation, I developed and disseminated a survey to FLTI alumni to explore how FFRC could better support alumni and what barriers to sustainable leadership were commonly being faced. Using the results from the survey, I made a few small recommendations for curriculum adjustments and drafted an alumni support plan that included building an alumni network and long-term alumni engagement through outreach and leadership opportunities. Drawing from this experience, I would be able to comfortably guide youth leaders in developing and implementing a similar plan to developfor an alumni arm of the Empowerment Group. My creativity kicked in after chatting with you, and I would love to share some of my ideas about how to develop and integrate processes into an established group and build cohesiveness while maintaining an open membership structure.