May Newsletter

This April we celebrated the 9th annual Diversity Day celebration with one of our favorite programs yet! Did you miss it, or want to go back? Below are the highlights from our night! Cheers to another year of celebrating diversity and youth leadership in Montana.

Diversity Day History: 

On April 12, 2010, Empower Montana’s youth leaders launched the Diversity Day Celebration in response to rising controversy and LGBTQ discrimination surrounding the City’s then-proposed anti-discrimination ordinance.  Mayor John Engen officially declared April 12 as Diversity Day in Missoula, and the event was credited for playing a key role in influencing the following day’s landmark City Council vote to extend non-discrimination protection to Missoula’s LGBTQ community. We continue to honor the hard work of the youth that first year by celebrating Diversity Day, a youth-led event, each year in recognition of all that makes our community unique.

This spring, our EPIC groups at Lowell and Hawthorne Elementary used their knowledge and experience with leadership to create a video to share with the community. Sure to make you laugh, and maybe tear up a little, here it is!

Middle School EPIC Project: 

This year’s community action project is a poster campaign called “Break the Box.” Each of us in EPIC have chosen a stereotype that upsets us and made a poster to challenge it. All posters follow the prompt: We don’t believe…, because we know…

All 26 posters now line the walls of each middle school to share with students ans faculty. We are so proud of all of the hard work our EPIC members put into this awesome poster campaign!

Youth Forward Project:

At Diversity Day, our Youth Forward program shared the film project they created called Dear Future Self. This film project was inspired by an excellent film project called Dear 40 Year Old Me from the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance who work hard in their state to support the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ youth.

Our Youth Forward and Be You Crew members spent some time writing and reflecting on what they would want to say to their future selves. While some of our members are more camera shy, we put together this film to share some of their answers.

“Remember Me” Reading: 

Diversity Day is all about honoring and celebrating youth leadership in the face of hardship. Everyone was young once, and yet most of us grow up and begin to invalidate the hardships of those who are now younger. It’s important for us all to remember what our experiences were as young people so that we can celebrate and empower our youth today. Which is why we asked community members to reconnect to their younger selves and share their reflections with us. Nine community members spoke ranging from Professor of History of Rock and Roll Jeff Brandt, to Big Sky Principal Natalie Jaeger, and community leader Ja’ton Simpson. If audience members hadn’t cried already, this mix of humor, grief, and inspiration was sure to get the tears flowing. While we don’t have the video to share yet, MCAT filmed the entire show so we will be sure to secure a copy to watch over and over!