We cultivate, encourage and nurture youth leadership and advocacy.
The Be Brave for Life Youth Advocates:
- Our Junior Board is made up of 10 caring, creative and dynamic individuals. Each is involved in all aspects of the Foundation’s work, from organizing and running events to reviewing grant proposals to soliciting sponsorships and donations.
- Our 35 youth ambassadors are actively involved in creating, planning and running fundraising events. They are energetic, resourceful and caring individuals. We are so honored to have them on the Be Brave team!
- All of our Youth Advocates care about creating a better tomorrow. Our hope is that each of them will take what they’ve learned from being a part of the Be Brave for Life Foundation and use it to create a better world. Whether they choose to further our mission or make a difference somewhere else, we aim to provide them with the courage and the tools to be an agent of positive change in the world.
10 Reasons Why
- Youth represent over 1/4 of the world population! As of 2014, the number of youth, ages 10-24, rose to nearly 1.8 billion, or slightly less than 25 percent of the world population.
- Youth are more receptive to change! Let’s face it. It is hard to teach an old dog new tricks, but young people are malleable and have the biggest stake in the future.
- Cultivating youth leadership creates our future leaders! Teaching our youth leadership skills at an early age ensures our future generation is equipped with competencies necessary for strong leadership but also enhances young people’s understanding of how to be accountable and inspiring leaders.
- Youth engagement is key to future innovation! Empowering youth to engage and take an active role in advocacy can play a critical role in future healthcare research and development.
- Youth leadership leads to community involvement! “Youth who are given the opportunity to work in a partnership with adults to make important decisions gain valuable life skills in planning, teamwork and leadership; build their confidence and increase their level of community investment and participation” – Michigan State University Extension.
- Youth leaders engage with their target audience through the platforms they are used to! Texting and social media are often a route to young people’s hearts and minds with built-in camouflage because most youth are on their phones all the time. Advocacy, at its most basic level, is communication. It is one person or a group of people sending messages for the purpose of persuading or influencing others.
- Advocacy is a teachable formula that can be used again and again! Our youth leaders learn how to advocate for Be Brave for Life, a formula they can use in the future for any cause! Simply put, advocacy means actively supporting a cause and trying to get others to support it as well.
- Youth leadership builds confidence and resilience! Our youth leaders put themselves out there. They learn how to approach people in a respectful way, clearly share our mission, and ask for their support. Over time and with practice, their confidence grows with each victory and they learn not to take rejection personally. A lesson many adults still struggle with!
- The benefits of youth leadership are transferable to future careers!
- Youth leaders of today are the hope of tomorrow!