Challenge

Recognize that:

• Prior leadership experience is often required for leadership positions. Society doesn’t provide young people with enough first-chance leadership experiences.
• Countless areas of improvement exist for our society. Society doesn’t continually invest enough in building a strong leadership pipeline to address these social issues.
• Many meaningful, experiential leadership experiences require resources or access. Society doesn’t create enough paths so all young people have a chance to lead.

Mission & Vision

Mission (why we exist):  Revealing leadership through service, relationships, and action

.

Vision (what we aspire to become) OPTIONS:

1. Inspiring people to live a lifestyle of leadership and service.
2. Building a pipeline of future leaders to solve the world’s most challenging social issues.

Shared Beliefs

The following statements represent organization-wide beliefs that most impact our decisions, behaviors, and goals.

• We believe in our responsibility to contribute to a community leadership pipeline - doing so will make a greater impact by developing more leaders to solve the world’s social issues rather than solving a specific social issue.
• We believe in furthering STLF’s mission collectively in cores, as well as through our individual values and leadership.
• We believe in high quality, transformative opportunities to reveal leadership.
• We believe in deeply cultivating those we come across.
• We believe in respectful, purpose-oriented interactions.
• We believe that stable, predictable fiscal health and activity makes for a stronger organization.
• We believe in dreaming, creating, measuring, and sustaining.

Key Stakeholders

High-Touch College Leaders: Offer a chance to be the cream of the crop while continuing to challenge and support them with mentorship and guidance, relationships with staff, and fun leadership roles.

• Relationships with people around whom they can be themselves
• Being challenged to grow and lead
• Being among the best, a master, in the STLF realm

Service/Housing Contacts: Service - Provide the people power organizations need to accomplish their work in a timely, high-quality manner. Housing - Provide a low-risk way to assist and invest in a body of youth that is grateful and energizing.

• Giving time and energy for the betterment of a/the community
• Mission-based work and a well-organized body of committed volunteers
• Respect and gratitude

College Leaders: Have a fun way to build their leadership skills, be a role model for peers and young people, and a network and set of experiences that will benefit them for their entire lives.

• First-time leadership and role model opportunities
• Making a difference for younger students and the greater population
• New challenges and opportunities to grow

Alumni: Being a part of a group of people with whom they can safely share, grow, and have fun, all while helping others.

• Relationships with people around whom they can be themselves
• Feeling alive, needed, and appreciated
• New experiences, planned spontaneity, and being part of a movement

College, High School, and Middle School Participants: Relevant experience that combines fun ways to better connect with peers, learn about oneself, and be exposed to future opportunities.

• Fun life experiences that push boundaries
• Being unique while still belonging
• Independence

Funders: Help fulfill personal, corporate, and foundation mission by effectively and efficiently leveraging contributions to maximize results while sharing ways they are fostering positive change.

• Valuable and comparable return on their investments
• Authentic, personal updates, follow-through, and gratitude
• Making a positive difference for others, internally in the organization and through the organization’s work

Schools: A partner who does most of the work to provide a learning and explorative opportunity for its students, which will help improve their school community and practice soft skills.

• Youth education, development, and preparation
• A productive and magnanimous(?) school environment/culture
• Partners who had value, are easy to work with, and further STLF’s mission

Parents: Provide their children with positive influences and valuable life skills in a way that aligns with their goals and hopes (for their children).

• Safe, values-aligned experiences for their kids
• Positive peers and role models for their kids
• Their children’s skills increases and perspectives broadened