Since 2019 EmpowerMT has traveled nearly 9,000 miles across our state, leading training, events, and programs, impacting over 5,500 youth and adults. We do this all with seven staff members and our bold volunteer youth leaders!
During the school year we want to encourage you to use EmpowerMT as a resource for your school. We have never turned down a school based on inability to pay and we aim to never have to. Please consider reaching out to our office to discuss how we can support your efforts whether it’s leading a workshop series for your staff and students, giving individual advice and best practices, or supporting an after school program in your community. We are always happy to hear from schools across the state!
You are an integral part of our growth and success, by supporting opportunities for us to reach more, do more, and BE MORE across Montana. Contact our office by phone (406)541-6891, email info@empowermt.org, or visit our website at empowermt.org for more information and to join us in empowering Montana!
Youth Leadership Pathway
Our leadership pathway consists of elementary to high school students partnering to create more welcoming and inclusive schools for all youth. EmpowerMT youth leaders start their journey in elementary or middle school through EPIC, Be You Crew, and school-based workshops. High school students and 8th grade after school club participants are eligible to attend our Empowering Youth Leadership Institute during the summer.
These students go on to train thousands of students and educators across the state of Montana on cultural competence, violence prevention, prejudice reduction, identity development, and youth empowerment. In addition to after school programs and school-based workshops, youth of all ages are selected to join our Youth Advisory Council (YAC) to help guide our work.
Social Emotional Learning
EmpowerMT sets the professional standard for social justice focused non- profit organizations by using empirically-based research to inform our curriculum, programs, and to guide the growth of our organization. We believe that empowering young people is an investment toward a better Montana. EmpowerMT partnered with Hello Insight, an organization that helps youth development programs continually evaluate and respond to what young people need, in 2017. Our youth programs were recognized by Hello Insight and were one of seventeen organizations across the USA to receive an award for our high-impact results in November, 2019.
SEL promotes social, emotional, and academic competence through the intentional development of skills, attitudes, and behaviors that young people need to thrive. Understanding the components of social and emotional learning allows us to coordinate family-school-community programming to best support youth well being. EmpowerMT embodies this lens and provides the space for youth and adult leaders to transform institutions, develop authentic relationships across group lines, cultivate resilience, and utilize positive communication skills to interrupt mistreatment and shift prejudicial attitudes. We realize our own capacities of influence and how leadership has no age limits. Most of all, we learn about our own identities, our emotions, and our aspirations for an all-inclusive Montana.
Social Emotional Learning Capacities
Positive Identity: An internal sense of self-worth and self-efficacy that empowers young people to make decisions for themselves and develop resilience in the face of challenges.
Self Management: The ability of a young person to regulate their emotions and behavior, take positive risks, and persist through life’s challenges.
Contribution: Positive engagement with family, community, and society that develops a young person’s positive purpose.
Social Capital: The positive bonds young people have with other people and institutions.
Academic Self-Efficacy: A young person’s motivation and perceived mastery over school performance and their general sense of belief in their potential to attain academic success.
Social skills: The ability of a young person to take others’ perspectives into account, develop a sense of caring, and empathy
