Facebook-f Instagram
Facebook-f Instagram

Events

Inspiring tomorrow's leaders.

Fall Slam 2023 Recap

The Fall Slam epitomized the enthusiasm youth in our region carry to be the next generation of changemakers! A diverse sampling of youth across our region overwhelmingly chose this year’s topic – Mental Health Matters. Young leaders led a speaker panel  to discuss the importance of changing the narrative and stigma surrounding mental health matters. Youth were able to share their stories, concerns, and ideas for addressing what matters to them. They participated in workshops to turn climate despair into climate hope with Ardea Youth Climate Coalition, learned mindful movement techniques with Mia Leibold of Rose Wellbeing, engaged in an affirmative art project with Nadiah Dyer-Coronado and Vince Scearce of ASK Family Services, and gained knowledge about centering into resiliency with Abra Smith of KYD Network. Youth left the event feeling heard, empowered, and called to action!           

Registration Closed
Registration Closed
Become a sponsor

Sponsorship opportunities

Presenting

$5,000
  • Join youth for breakfast and offer morning welcome
  • Your banner displayed at event
  • Your logo on back of Fall Slam t-shirt
  • Your logo on signage at event
  • Verbal recognition at event
  • Your logo in print materials
  • Shout out on social media
  • Logo and link to your organization on our website
Sponsor

Peacemaker

$2,500
  • Your logo on back of Fall Slam t-shirt
  • Your logo on signage at event
  • Verbal recognition at event
  • Your logo in print materials
  • Shout out on social media
  • Logo and link to your organization on our website
Sponsor

Influencer

$1,000
  • Your logo on signage at event
  • Verbal recognition at event
  • Your logo in print materials
  • Shout out on social media
  • Logo and link to your organization on our website
Sponsor

Supporter

$500
  • Your name in print materials
  • Shout out on social media
  • Logo and link to your organization on our website
Sponsor

Thank you to our Sponsors

KZCF-Color-Logo-Hor-Tag
Seelye-Family-Logo-Final-1
Mercantile Bank

YOUth in Action Recap

Celebrating the 2023 Awardees

Layla Wallace

More about Layla

Ardea Youth Climate Coalition

More about Ardea

Portage West Middle School DREAMS Club

More about Dreams Club

Kalamazoo Central National Honor Society

More about KCNHS

Thank you to our sponsors

KZCF-Color-Logo-Hor-Tag
Arcus Center logo
organization-featured-msc-1576786105
Sign Center logo
unnamed (1)
KAR (1)

Thank you to our Collaborators

organization-featured-msc-1576786105
The Teacher Cypher
KAR
Fire Arts

Be the first to know about upcoming events.

Sign up for email updates!

Get involved
Support future events

Past Events

Layla Wallace

What began as a 4th grade economics project morphed into a business, Layla’s Cool Pops, which serves delicious sweet treats and friendly service. Layla and her mother, Dr. Luchara Wallace, started their business in 2015, to support Layla’s Sweets4Homeless Initiative, a non-profit designed to purchase homes for homeless families and provide financial support to other organizations in the community committed to combating homelessness.

Layla opened her first storefront in 2018 in the Edison Neighborhood and is now in the process of renovating her bakery on South Westnedge, all with the hopes of providing employment training to youth and young adults through Layla’s Cool Pops as well use profits to purchase affordable housing.

Last year, Layla and her mother’s dreams came true, when they purchased a 4-unit home in the Vine Neighborhood, which they are renovating with the primary aim of offering affordable housing to teens and young adults who find themselves in dangerous or severe housing situations who have the capacity to live independently.

Ardea Youth Climate Coalition

The Ardea Youth Climate Coalition is a group of high school students from Kalamazoo County dedicated to amplifying youth voices in the fight for climate justice. They are peer educators and instigators, whose mission is to bring community awareness and activism to Kalamazoo on all thing’s climate change. Through open discussion, civic participation, and the sharing of resources, they hope to build solidarity and combat apathy among our generation in order to pave the way for a brighter, more sustainable future.

Ardea Youth Climate Coalition’s community change work includes:

  • Honoring World Food Day, which is celebrated on October 16th, with the goal to raise global awareness and action for those who suffer from hunger, as well as the need to ensure healthy diets for all. As advocates for food sovereignty and sustainability, Ardea YCC prepared 45 vegetarian, locally sourced, and sustainably purchased meals that they then distributed to families on Kalamazoo’s north and south sides.
  • They also created and presented lessons to share with 5th graders at Edison Elementary in order to teach students about climate change. They visited the classroom four times this year to continue to build up the students’ knowledge about climate change and the actions they can take to reduce their carbon footprint.
  • Four Ardea YCC students also attended a Kalamazoo City Commission meeting in November to support the adoption of the Urban Bird Treaty. This is a set of ordinances that support the survivorship and reproduction of birds migrating through and living in our city. It includes actions like lights out hours during migration and bird safe glass on new construction.

Ardea Youth Climate Coalition Members are:

  • Anna Edlefson
  • Daniel Sullivan
  • Elliot Spoelstra
  • Mia Breznau
  • Olivia Scheinker
  • Owen Quayle
  • Reniya Fance
  • Yacine Lo
  • Zakiya Flemming
  • Amber Hejl, Director of Heronwood Field Station

Portage West Middle School DREAMS Club

The DREAMS Club’s motto is “Your Voice Matters.” They strive to be a safe and supportive group for students of all backgrounds regardless of age, ethnicity, race, color, abilities, religion, socioeconomic status, culture, gender identity, and sexuality. The DREAMS Club encourages students to help build a community where diverse students unite and take action to create lasting change. They commit to seeking out and creating opportunities for students to feel special, connected, successful, and heard through projects that celebrate identity and encourage acceptance. 

The Portage West Middle School DREAMS Club’s community change work includes:

  • Creating a Penny Wars fundraiser across 6th, 7th and 8th grades, which raised over $1,200 this fall! The seventh graders raised the most and selected the proceeds to go to the YWCA of Kalamazoo.
  • Hosting a Black History Month door decorating contest. The three winning classroom doors were George Washington Carver, Benjamin Banneke, and Mohammed Ali. Each winning classroom received a catered shrimp & grits lunch by Eric Tate, who runs Top Shelf Catering.
  • Creating an affirming video for Pride month, during the pandemic, to share that middle schoolers are old enough to understand how important it is that all people should be treated equally and provided resources to assist with this vision. They showed the video to the school during a virtual assembly.
  • Each May they host a DREAMS Drive, collecting food and personal care items. Each year they donate these items to the Portage Community Outreach Center.

 

Portage West Middle School DREAMS Club members are:

  • Ace Thompson
  • Anya Urban
  • Charlotte Sarmiento
  • Collin McDaniel
  • Cydney Blasingame
  • Jalayna Thomas
  • Kalliope Hulick
  • Khi Coughlin
  • Levi Scott
  • Lily “Bugz” Mertz
  • Makenna Hulick
  • Oakley Martinek
  • Rowan Harlow
  • Sophia Worthington
  • Willow Nissen
  • Kathy Ha, Teacher and DREAMS Club Advisor

Kalamazoo Central National Honor Society

The Kalamazoo Central National Honor Society’s mission is to inspire students to embrace long term involvement within their community. This past fall, they exceeded their own expectations with a food drive that was nothing short of amazing! 

The NHS leadership team took a tour of Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes, their food donation site, to better understand the need in our community. Inspired by this visit, the leaders were determined to level up the food drive experience. They implemented a variety of creative strategies to boost participation from students, teachers, and staff at their school, utilizing social media, and modeling a points-system and daily multipliers after popular video games and phone apps, to create a friendly competition between classes. These methods were a huge success, with school members donating over 16,000 pounds of food, far surpassing their goal of 13,900 pounds.

Not stopping yet, on the last day of the food drive, NHS members engaged the community, soliciting donations door-to-door and hosting a stuff-the-bus event. By the end of their fall food drive, Kalamazoo Central National Honor Society members collected over 22,000 pounds of food, and raised over $16,000 in support of Kalamazoo Loaves & Fishes!

Kalamazoo Central National Honor Society leadership are:

  • Alexander Salinas
  • Amenech Kostrzewa
  • Cristina Guanon
  • Emma Schrum
  • Samantha Audrey Pocopio
  • Tyler Overbeek
  • Rex Hafer, Teacher and National Honor Society Advisor