YWCA Youth Empowerment Committee
About
The YWCA Youth Empowerment Committee was formed in 2020 and has been run by youth leaders for the past 4 years. Each year, the YEC holds various recurring events with local organizations and charities such as the DVCC, Filling in the Blanks, Liberations Programs and more. We hold online or in-person meetings the first Wednesday of each month. In these meetings, youth members work together with an advisor to formulate ideas for new meaningful work and events to plan locally. As a part of the YEC, members are able to be hands-on with creating volunteer opportunities that are meaningful to them, and our organization is flexible with the type of community service that we do depending on the interests of the current members. Our group is currently spearheaded by co-presidents Caitlin O’Mara, Charlotte Golden, and Sarah Donelly and lead by advisor Tara Giblin.
We aim to bring together youth of diverse backgrounds and school systems to promote a comprehensive idea of the perspectives across Darien and Norwalk. This role will be a hands-on opportunity for youth engagement, which can take the form of volunteer work, leadership roles, project management, event planning, and much more. We will be working towards addressing local issues that the community feel are not fully being acknowledged. We would love to get Norwalk students involved in this unique platform and continue to work towards inclusion and social justice together.
Our Mission
Our goal is to cultivate community growth through youth action and prompt members to develop a strong leadership mentality when it comes to inciting change. This will promote students to take initiative, help them to gain an awareness of their communities needs and encourage them to reach their fullest potential. We want to create an inclusive space for high school aged youth to grow an understanding of how to be an effective leader, and give them the tools to achieve lasting change in the community. These actions will be focused on the YWCA’s missions of eliminating racism and empowering women.
Meetings and Events
Our group aims to meet in-person at the YWCA Darien, once a month. We have a year-long Calendar of our local volunteer events as well as volunteer opportunities that we create for our members which involved various nonprofit organizations in Darien, Norwalk, and Stamford. Membership is completely free.
How do I get involved?
To get involved, sign up via our sign up form. Once signed up, you will be added to an email list where we communicate information on monthly meeting times and volunteer opportunities. You will be provided with an overview of our planned volunteer events for the 2024-2025 school year and can sign up for these events or design your own. Thank you for your interest!
Organizations
As a group we hope to partner with as many local organizations as possible. Below is a list of the organizations that we are currently working with or have worked with in the past. We hope to continue to increase this list as we progress and grow as a group.
2023-2024 Executive Board
Co-Presidents: Meggie Moles, Courtney Haire, Grace Knightly and Ellie Laforce
Advisors: Tara Giblin and Sarah Kennedy
Sign up here if you are interested in joining the committee!