SevenDays is accepting applications for its Kindness Youth Leadership Team (KYLT) for the 2024-2025 school year.
KYLT is made up of high school students (ninth-through-12th grades) from a variety of schools across the Kansas City metro, faiths, cultures and ethnicities.
Students in the KYLT meet monthly to participate in leadership training and perform acts of community service. KYLT members are “kindness influencers” who also help plan SevenDays’ annual Kindness Kickoff event and Kindness Walk and work to increase participation in SevenDays activities by students at their schools.
Members are chosen through an application process; applications are now available through the SevenDays website (sevendays.org). The application deadline is Friday, Aug. 2.
“We are so excited to receive applications from students who truly care about kindness and understanding,” said Jill Andersen, director of youth engagement for SevenDays. “We look for teens who want to learn leadership skills, make new friends and gain knowledge, then put it all into action by being ‘kindness influencers.’”
SevenDays is a Kansas-City based nonprofit organization that promotes kindness and understanding through education and dialogue. SevenDays was founded in 2014 after a white supremacist murdered Reat Underwood, his grandfather Dr. William Corporon and Terri LaManno.
KYLT members have also helped develop kindness resources available from SevenDays including “Carry On Kindness” cards. All resources are free, available for all, and encouraged.
“One thing I have really enjoyed about KYLT has been the many connections I’ve been able to form through it,” said Athan Tran, a recent KYLT member. “Being able to work with like-minded peers from around the Greater Kansas City area has really opened my eyes to how big my community is, and the events I’ve helped organize have allowed me to meet mentors and figures I can look up to and connect with.”
SevenDays 2025 will begin Monday, March 31, 2025, and continue through April 8. The SevenDays Kindness Breakfast will take place on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in the Foundry at the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection (COR) in Leawood.
In the coming months, SevenDays will announce additional youth engagement opportunities through its SevenDays Art Design Competition and Act of Kindness Scholarships.
More information about the Kindness Youth Leadership Team or other youth activities is available by emailing Jill Andersen, SevenDays’ youth engagement director, at , or by visiting sevendays.org.
