Make the League’s First Summer Leadership Program a Success:
Sponsored by Beyond the Bricks and OSI’s Campaign for Black Male Achievement.
We’re proud to announce that the Wisconsin League recently won a grant to partially fund our first annual Summer Leadership Cohort Program. This will be the most intensive, hands-on training that we’ve ever been able to offer.
This grant will give us an incredible opportunity to open doors for young leaders to grow and make a difference in our state. This program will help motivated kids learn the skills that they need to build power around the issues that they care most about.
We still need your help to get this program off the ground. We need to raise $10,000 to carry the program through the entire summer successfully. Can you partner with us to make this happen?
Meet Cierra Brown, a veteran of the Milwaukee League’s Summer Internship Program:
youngvoter.org came into my life without any introduction. I was an 18-year-old high school graduate who had plans of attending Mount Mary College for Fashion Design. Rob “Biko”Baker, the executive director of the Milwaukee League, facilitated a Leadership Training at the school that I was working at. This particular training was different from any other that I had attended because it took me out of my comfort zone.
I was encouraged and, in a way, forced to articulate my opinions on various issues that I had never thought twice about. From that training, I learned about the summer internship and decided to apply for it. During the eight-week internship program, I was trained in canvassing, phone banking, data entry and issue-based blogging.
After the eight weeks was over, I was asked to come back as a community organizer and soon began my journey as a League employee. I not only learned valuable office and organizing skills, but I learned some life-changing qualities about myself.
I realized that I was a talented public speaker, loved working with people and enjoyed managing projects. From learning these things, I changed my college major from fashion design to communications with a concentration in public relations. I decided to change my educational path because working with the community and being able to speak publicly was truly my passion.
I am now a sophomore attending Mount Mary College in Milwaukee and could not be happier. Through the League, I have been able to plan events such as Put the Guns down Rally (a non-violent advocacy rally that takes place each September in a park) and Terror in The Mall (an event created to get young people to vote).
Recently, I have been given the opportunity to testify on behalf of The League at Wisconsin’s City Hall against the Voter ID Bill. Lastly, with the help of other League members, I was featured in a documentary that was created in Madison and posted on the League’s website concerning the new budget repair bill that was recently passed. From that short documentary, I was invited by a local talk radio show 1290 to speak about the League and how I am involved.
All in all, the League of Young Voters has helped me to become confident, resourceful, a community organizer, and civically-engaged. It has opened doors, and has changed my life forever. Whether I am researching a new political issue, participating in a community event, or informing my peers about the importance of voting, I am forever thankful that I was given the opportunity to work with The League. I am working to make The League my career because I love it that much.
