Tonight I had the pleasure to meet with 20 youths at the Children & Families of Iowa (CFI) location on University Avenue. Our group of Young Professional Connection Members have met with the youth 5 times over the year, and I must say I have really enjoyed myself each time. Our meetings were set up via a challenge from Joe Young that was issued back in February. Mr. Young, who was a Downtown Community Alliance Board Member, challenged the YPC Impact Downtown Committee to mentor youth with CFI's Elevate group.

The Elevate group seeks to inspire others to new levels of understanding about the foster system. Their goals are to train and empower youth to become advocates for foster youth everywhere. The Elevate members are typically between 13 to 18 year old and they are faced the realization that they will soon be too old to be part of the foster care system in the state of Iowa. That realization is part of the reason we were challenged to meet with the youth.

It was thought that we could help to teach the foster youth a few concepts that they will need to know to live in the world. For our first meeting we invited representatives from the Admissions Office at Grand View College to speak about college admission. At our other meetings we did mock job interviews, discussed how to dress to impress, identify differing personality traits, and general skills needed to live on their own. As a special treat, we were invited to participate in first Annual CFI's Apartment Make Over event in April, where we made over a youths apartment who recently aged out of the foster system, though very generous donations from YPC members.

I know many people don't think of mentoring foster youth when they are considering items that are not boring in Des Moines. But, I have to say, I am very impressed with the CFI organization and the youth in particular. I don't know if CFI is a good fit for everyone, but take the time this holiday season to give back in some way to a group in our community. After all, that is what Central Iowa is known for, our community and our kind hearts. It is not often I advocate items of this nature, I guess it is more just a reflection of the passion I have seen at CFI and my way to try to give back to the youth.

This picture was taken at the apartment we made over during the Apartment Makeover event in April.