| Dear Friends – Thank you for joining us on Wednesday!
What a wonderful way to end this extremely challenging year – seeing old and new faces on Wednesday night as we looked back and celebrated 10 years of building the youth development field together!
We debated whether it was the right time to hold a celebration. In deciding to go ahead, we realized that now is exactly the time we need to be in community with one another and continue to grow our connections and our network. The persistence and drive that so many of you have shown this year to ensure the young people you support have connectivity, have food to eat, have a therapist available via telehealth, have a safe place to learn and grow (while schools are closed but childcares are open), and have engaging activities to do whether on Zoom or live… has been incredible to witness and has spotlighted our sector of nonprofits who work tirelessly for kids in a way that is often hidden and underappreciated.
We want to thank you and celebrate you!
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Mona Grife built and read The Story of YDEKC to us! We had so much fun sharing our journey with you in this way! |
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| Hikma Sherka, a YDEKC staff-alum and a fierce champion for the voices of young people, shared the importance of youth development programs for her growing up and the importance of the field now. Hikma continues to push decision makers — including ourselves — to ensure we are grounded in the lived experiences of young people today who are navigating our structures and systems that have been built on exclusion and systemic racism — and calling us to do better. |
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| Vu Le, one of our YDEKC original founders, shared a call to action on the need to address the continued under resourcing of nonprofits — especially those led by Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. Vu shared how so much of the work youth-serving nonprofits provide is like air: we need it to breathe, but it is so hard to see. He also highlighted how rarely we get to see the longer-term impact of our work supporting young people. Subscribe to Vu’s blog here. |
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| Pedro Perez, one of our Advisory Board co-chairs, and Executive Director of Geeking Out Kids of Color, shared that about our strategic planning process and decision to update our mission to be:
YDEKC connects, strengthens, and amplifies the leaders of youth-serving organizations so that Black, Indigenous, and young people of color thrive.
He shared that we must be clear about why we are building and unifying the youth development field. That we must be focused on racial equity. Not only eliminating disparities between kids of color and white kids, but focused on ensuring that Black, Indigenous and youth of color thrive. We believe if we are more clearly focused on that intention that all young people benefit. We are excited to live into this mission in the coming years. To see more about our strategic directions and what’s coming up for YDEKC, please download this short slide deck. |
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| We are so thankful for the time we had together to celebrate, look back, and look forward.
Thank you to our planning committee for our 10 year event — Brianna Jackson, formerly of Launch and now at the Stolte Family Foundation; Kevin Wright, of WSU 4H; Gwen Bagley, of the YMCA of Greater Seattle; Jennifer Tanaka, formerly of One World Now, and now at King County; Deb Salls, of Bike Works; and Danielle Baer.
And special thanks to our staff team — Mona Grife, René Murry, Stephanie M., Sarah Terry, and Anne Arias, as well as our Advisory Board. |
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| Can you help?
As we look to diversify our funding streams and to ensure our sustainability into our future, we hope that you’ll consider making a contribution today. We have a goal of raising $15K by year end, and are one third of the way there! Thank you to the donors that have made contributions already!
If you would like to join our coalition of youth-development organizations in King County,
please (re)commit to YDEKC today and send us your YDEKC Member Commitment Form.
I hope you stay safe and well as we close out this year that none of us will ever forget. And cheers to a decade of advancing the youth development field!
All my best,
Jessica |
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