Read below from YC’s Jesuit Volunteer Program Coordinator, Brittany D’Souza about YELP and all the wonderful programming happening at YC!
YELP, Youth Empowerment and Leadership Program and Peer Support is one of Youth Challenge’s most attended programs. This program is a type of peer support for both volunteers and participants aged 16 to 25. Every Wednesday night, participants and volunteers gather virtually or in-person to talk about different topics. Through our discussion and reflection, YELP fosters an environment where anyone – participant, volunteer, or staff member can come to and leave feeling empowered and supported.
As a form of empowerment, we encourage a participant every season to take on more leadership in the form of an internship. For the Fall 2020 season, we had the fabulous participant intern, Gabby Bova. As a new member of the YC family myself as the new Jesuit Volunteer, I loved having Gabby show me the ropes of YELP and learn alongside her. It was even more of a pleasure to watch Gabby grow in confidence as she took on more leadership roles within YELP and handled leading discussions with ease.
In contrast to prior years, YELP has shifted from having an overall season theme to keeping a general theme for 2 to 3 sessions. This change has allowed for a wide breadth of topics to be covered over the past year. In particular, the last season covered a lot of ground from the importance of voting and the disability vote to healthy habits, including meditation, the practice of gratitude, and eating well. These topics were influenced by current events and the passions of our participant intern. Gabby is enthusiastic about health and wellness and has been trying to incorporate some of the tips we have discussed at YELP into her lifestyle. This includes eating a more balanced diet and adding more plant-based foods. Gabby has discovered that this has made her a happier person!
This last season was a blast, and we are looking forward to so much more during this coming Winter-Spring season. Bre Sprenger (pictured at the top on the right) will be our new intern for this season, and we could not be more excited to have her! She will bring a new lens on disability justice, the Paralympics, advocacy, and independent living, as these are some of her personal passions. We will continue talking about goal setting, healthy habits, implicit bias, and other topics that will empower both our participants and volunteers. As I have learned, the goal of YELP is to foster an environment where everyone can lean on each other during tough times and to empower everyone into living a life where they feel confident and supported. I, for one, am glad I have had this group of strong, wonderful participants, volunteers, and staff to chat and check-in with one another every Wednesday night. I am looking forward to more engaging conversations during this upcoming season!