What have I learned so far?

There are many things I have learned throughout my time in CLP. The main things I have learned are fostering relationships and forming connections, project planning, youth-led organizing, time management, fundraising, and brainstorming.

Core CLP practices and principles:

Fostering relationships, forming connections (Dialogue, Connection)

An example of this is with Mentoring Today for Tomorrow, also a non-profit organization. We were able to talk to them and share our ideas so that we could build relationships with one another.

Transformative program and theory development:

Project planning (time line, goals, resources, etc.)

An great example for this is Making Space. We organized the time line and how long each event would last and we focused on what our main goal was: fundraising. All of us had to work as a team so everything could be done quickly and in order.

Youth-led organizing and young adult leadership skills (Action)

When we would be learning about grant writing young students from high school were helping us figure out what to write about in our grant. Young adult leadership skills are very important because we are the ones who can make a difference.

For-Impact Organizational Development:

Time management, prioritizing

In Making Space I learned that for every event someone wants to make, prioritizing is the best way to do it successfully. We can start as early as one month before the event. Starting by emailing the people we want to help us and then reminding them we need them for a special date. We want to know the theme of the event, the audience, the space rentals, what the fundraiser will be, email friends or post the event on facebook, and assigning roles to people who are willing to helping us.

Fundraising (Grant-writing, donor asks, mail, online networking,

event-planning)

I learned a few things about Grant Writing. We need to be sure what they are asking for. We don’t need to show -off our writing style, we simply need to inform the reader with simple writing.

I e-mailed many non-profit organizations so we could meet with them to share our ideas. Mentoring Today for Tomorrow was an organization we met and were able to talk with them about their organization and their work with young adults and children.

Brainstorming (creation, formation, action)

By brainstorming we create many ideas which could become useful for whatever purpose. In many Intern meetings that is what we do, we brainstorm and everyone shares his or her ideas so everyone can cooperate in whatever ways they can.