Nothing keeps us more grounded in Our Purpose than witnessing the transformative impact of Y-WE’s programs and community of belonging on our youth. Watch our new 3.5-minute video to hear directly from our young people. It’s a powerful dose of inspiration and joy, showcasing what’s possible when youth are given a radical welcome, the support of a caring community, and opportunities to lead.
Transcript:
Anika Rao: My experience with Y-WE has been a wild ride. It’s something otherworldly,
Tiffany Barber: I see Y-WE as a place of belonging and community.
Andrea Martinez: What stuck with me the most from Y-WE is finding my sense of purpose.
Isavel Santamaria: What first caught my attention was the variety of programs they have, it’s never boring. Y-WE has built a community so strong and so centered in love and support, every time I think about Y-WE, there’s a fond memory in mind.
Anika Rao: I started as a bit of an insecure seventh grader, I was 13, I arrived on Y-WE Career Day. I saw this huge room full of women of color, all shapes and sizes, talking to each other, laughing, enjoying a buffet of really good food.
Fatima Camara: By coming to Marra Farm and doing the actual work of healing and being connected to the earth and growing the crops and also distributing it out to the community just felt very much wholesome to me. And I felt like I needed to be active in the field of environmentalism.
Emma Coopersmith: There are people from across the Seattle area that are just doing the coolest work. And I learned new things about my peers and mentors and facilitators every day.
Tayah Carlisle: Oftentimes, in youth work, there’s always this like dynamic between like, youth and facilitators, but staff at Y-WE and mentors, we’re actually here to create the container for our young people to thrive, and to be and to exist, and to experience joy and to grieve. We’re holding that container.
Tiffany Barber: I feel so welcome here being Black, female, coming from a different background, low income background. So it’s really fun to be myself, be able to be loud, weird, you know, enjoy myself and also be challenged and grow with people who are like me.
Nabra Nelson: The young folks at Y-WE are the culture changers, the changemakers of the future of our community. And so we need to give them the tools to have that voice and to express themselves in the ways that are most powerful for them.
Isavel Santamaria: You feel these adults are adults that really care for your well being and also want to hear from you and they appreciate everything you have to say and bring.
Andrea Martinez: Y-WE will find a way to get you out of your shell and push you, make you push yourself and make you strive to be the best version of yourself.
Isavel Santamaria: When I entered Y-WE I really didn’t know who I was in the space and it was intimidating to be in a space of new people. But now like I feel like I can go anywhere, in a new space with new people and feel at home and know how to communicate and make myself heard.
Anika Rao: I’m genuinely so proud of everything that I’ve accomplished over the past five years and Y-WE has been an instrumental part of that. I wish that everybody on this earth can find the magic of Y-WE in some way in their lives.
Shaniah Andal: And that’s what makes me come back here. It just, it feels like home.