Last night, Youth MOVE National opened a virtual stage for our annual Rockstar Awards. This year, we had to get creative with how we wanted to present these awards to youth advocates, supportive adult allies, and organizations working towards enhancing and making youth-serving systems better.
Youth MOVE National presents the Rockstar Awards to people and organizations who have made an outstanding contribution toward the improvement of youth or youth-serving systems—like mental health, juvenile justice, education, and child welfare.
We honored Rockstars on our virtual stage (http://www.twitch.tv/youthmovenational), and had just shy of 100 audience members cheering them on. We heard stories of resiliency and advocacy from Pasadena County in California all the way to Reading High School in Pennsylvania. The chat room truly was a RAVE as peers, supporters, and strangers alike cheered for these amazing advocates on screen. We felt truly inspired by the stories and the speeches gave us chills.
We want to thank those who participated this year. Although we had to get creative with how to fully appreciate the Rockstar process, we think the event was able to capture how special these individuals and organizations are!
Over the last month, we have been raising money to sponsor prize packages for Rockstars including youth advocacy swag, scholarships to the Youth Advocate Leadership Academy (YALA), and technology packages. There is still time to help sponsor all of the amazing work by checking out our Rockstar Fundraiser:
RAVE 2020 was sponsored by two incredible donors, Change Matrix and The Hackett Center. Be on the lookout for highlights for those two organizations in later blogs, but know that they are making it possible for Youth MOVE to create programs and opportunities for Rockstars and other youth advocates!
During the show, we were able to honor the memory of Mateo Anderson, a fellow Youth MOVEr who touched the lives of many through his advocacy. Maxxwell LaBrie, a friend and current YMN board member had some inspiring words to share about the life of a powerful youth advocate.
If you missed the show, don’t fret. We have uploaded RAVE 2020 to our YouTube channel and can watch it here:
Keep your eyes open on the Youth MOVE blog! Starting next week, we will be featuring Rockstars and their incredible work.
2020 RAVE Winners
