I am a youth representative for the Women and Children’s Alliance of Boise. This is a nonprofit that provides services for anyone who has been the victim of domestic violence or sexual abuse/assault. My junior year I volunteered both here and on the Mayor’s Council for Children and Yout, and I did see some overlapping issues where the system could be better in providing services for our community.
I helped identify some of these issues with my peers at the WCA, and we wrote and applied for a grant to help train others in our community to be more effective in promoting healthy relationships and boundaries. We were awarded the grant and our idea was to have a Youth Summit, which would be the first in Idaho. This fall we are going to have a training in Boise with 50 other students from all over the state. We are going to brainstorm different ideas and try to figure out which ones would be effective and easy to implement. We are still in the preliminary stages, but the general consensus right now is we want our event to educate the community about what services are currently available. I am very excited to be working on this project my senior year and am hopeful that it will be a sustainable event that will continue to grow and make our community a place where everyone can thrive.