Winstead's: A New KCIYA Tradition?

One of the best parts of this internship, besides exploring the city and its many offbeat coffee shops, has been working with the youth.  And one of the best parts of working with the youth, besides exploring the city and its many delicious ice cream shops, has been hearing their ideas for the future of KCIYA.

There is certainly something to be said about the impact of sharing a meal with others, especially when that meal happens to take place at Winstead's, the go-to place for a true KC experience.

The other weekend, we got together with some of KCIYA's most involved youth at a Kansas City classic (Winstead's, of course) to discuss what they want to get out of the organization and its mission.  Teresa and I had been brainstorming, and we came up with this new (awesome) motto: Lead - Serve - Grow.  The youth seemed pretty excited about the idea of developing these three pillars.  In fact, as Teresa and I were hesitant about adding in a third meeting each month devoted to the social aspect of KCIYA, they were thrilled.  Apparently, they felt that, with only two meetings per month (leadership council and service project), missing one meeting was missing a lot.

Taking the initiative to tweak KCIYA and how it is organized is a big step toward their taking ownership of the group.  I remember how, when I joined KCIYA, it was in its formative stages, so we basically had free rein over what we wanted to group to look like, what we wanted to focus on, what service projects we wanted to do.  I even remember when we made the logo ...good times.  I really want the youth now to have that same experience.  KCIYA isn't supposed to be limiting, or a burden.  Although taking on such a large leadership role can be overwhelming at first, if they find a way to make it their own, they'll be more excited about what they're doing.

This is a skyscraper.  But I have no idea who these children are.

Back to the meeting....  Over two skyscraper shakes (there were 7 of us - so don't judge), we discussed what this third "growth" meeting each month might look like.  It was settled that it would be much more relaxed, perhaps throwing in some board games, movies, food, other-festivities-we-have-yet-to-brainstorm; and we would aim to have more of the interfaith dialogue that we always intended to include in our council meetings, but never seemed to take place.

I, for one, am pumped for these social gatherings, even though I won't really be here during the school year when they are all taking place.  However, it's definitely a good thing that us interns will be gone, giving the youth a chance to really take the lead.  Honestly, I'm curious to see how KCIYA transforms during the year.