2021 yep updates
- We doubled down on our community engagement efforts by raising money for St. Martin's Center, providing meals to Mercy Center for Women, held a blood drive for the Community Blood Bank, and donated food and funds to the Second Harvest Food Bank. We once again collected toys for the children at SafeNet and continued our partnership with ServErie through direct service and donating care packages.
- In its first year, Young Erie Philanthropists granted $5,000 to New Erie Mavericks, a program of USCRI Erie which drives economic development through immigrant and refugee-owned businesses.
- We partnered with Councilman David Brennan to make public appointments to authorities, boards and commissions more transparent and accessible through a new online platform.
- We completed a new strategic plan in June to refine our purpose, define our values, and set long-term goals to attract and retain young talent in Erie.
- We held our first open election for our executive committee and appointed chairs to our newly restructured leadership team.
We grappled with the hard truth that Young Erie Professionals has traditionally been an organization that represents a small, predominantly white, upper-class segment of our young leaders and pledged to change our own systems and processes to create a more equitable, inclusive, and diverse YEP. We set goals to be more intentional in our outreach and restructured our dues schedule to lower the barrier to entry. We now offer a Social membership (pay as you go), Student membership ($25), and our traditional Forward membership ($75/100).
We created a series of programs and events for 2021 that continues our much-loved signature programming and events with renewed focus to align with our goals. We'll bring back our Off the Clock, Seat at the Table, Drop the Mic, and Member Meet-up series. We also look forward to our second round of grants to be awarded this year through the Young Erie Philanthropists. We are holding onto hope that we will be able to once again partner with the Erie Reader to celebrate Erie's 40 under 40.
Our future is what we make it. Erie needs talented, energized leaders like you to lead the way. Join us Wednesday, February 17th at 7pm on YouTube and Facebook for our Annual Townhall Meeting. You will hear directly from our new leadership team about our plans for 2021 as well as learn more about how you can join our efforts to attract, develop, and mobilize Erie's emerging leaders through Young Erie Professionals.
