A Guest Post from the Irish American Young Leaders

The Irish American Young Leaders are hosting a Hall of Fame and launch party this Friday, March 11, 2016 in New York City. Learn more about the organization below and also by reading the press release linked here.

What is the Irish American Young Leaders?

The Irish American Young Leaders program was initiated by a group of young people who are deeply proud of their heritage and are interested in finding ways to be a positive influence their local communities and globally.

Founded in 2015, the Irish American Young Leaders is a non-profit organization that fosters leadership among high school students, college students, and young professionals. We believe in the power of the youth to effect positive change for themselves and their community. Leveraging local leaders and community resources, IAYL offers leadership initiatives that give high school, college students and young professionals the necessary tools and real life experiences to become strong leaders in the community. Our motto is that some future "leaders are made, not born."

The Irish American Young Leaders builds strong teams, infuses those teams with a sense of personal connection to new members, and welcomes new contributors with open arms, making everyone feel they belong and thus growing a strong and scalable community that can expand beyond the current membership base and produce new generations of competent contributors in the future. This is an important way in which we can build our shared culture, founded on a strong commitment to our values.

I Am Young Leader Ambassadors work on their own initiatives or lend the power of the I AM Young Leaders network to those initiatives already in existence. The first chapter was established in New York in September 2015 with Kiera O'Conner as the 1st President.

New Members Are Always Welcome!!! Although we are a young organization, several chapters are already in place in the tri-state area and Florida, with ambitious plans for a global network uniting our young leaders of the future. We are reaching out to all our people and the corporate sector, among other audiences, to raise awareness of our mission to help build and connect. Our website is currently under construction, but in the meantime please "LIKE" our Facebook page to keep up to date with our progress! We hope that you will also assist us by spreading the word about our program to your family, friends, and business associates around the world!

The Irish American Young Leaders Hall of Fame has been created to honor leaders who have made invaluable contributions to society and the world beyond. The Hall of Fame reinforces the message to future young leaders that they can and should strive for excellence in any endeavor of their choosing. By presenting powerful role models and teaching young people about inductees, the Hall of Fame is a source of learning, inspiration, and resources.

Everyone is invited to our exciting, fun Launch Party as we honor today's most influential leaders, the brightest leaders from NYC & beyond, so come let's party! Tickets are available on Eventbrite.

Meet Chiffon Bremby, Fashion Designer and Youth Advocate

Over the last five years as an aspiring up and coming singer and currently songwriter, Chiffon Bremby has always had fashion in mind as something that she wanted to pursue, especially watching other established entertainers who were doing it all--being fashion designers in addition to performers--which really intrigued Chiffon to want to follow a similar path. It was in early 2013 that she decided to embark on her journey in wanting to create a fashion design business and start making clothes. She also previously was a music and fashion freelance journalist, and she does marketing for others now. A few of the media outlets she worked for in the past as a freelancer include the Juice Weekly, SA Current, and SA Observer.

Hood Hip Art and Culture Community for Empowerment was created in 2013 and educates the youth in the community by giving a fashion platform to help aspiring artists, fashion journalists, and designers explore more opportunities in the arts and culture field while allowing them access to more information geared towards youth culture and how fashion can influence it, which is the premise Chiffon's business was created on. Hood Hip Art and Culture Community for Empowerment aims to strengthen the self-esteem and confidence of our aspiring young artists, youth, and children in the communities to enable them to find the courage to build their own brands for their futures as a member of the Hood Hip Arts and Culture Community Empowerment movement which is a division under the Hood Hip Bottoms Fashion Line. The purpose of this business is to help focus putting back more positive influences as opposed to negative influences for our youth when it comes to youth culture.

1. When did you first become interested in fashion and design?

I first became interested in fashion and design about five years ago.

2. Would you tell us about the ways that you are working to empower youth through fashion and entrepreneurship through your project, Hood Hip Art and Culture Community for Empowerment?

The ways that I am working to empower youth through fashion and entrepreneurship in my project is by giving young people, especially minorities, a platform where planning assistance to aspiring artists in different fields for the future is provided. Creative interactive tools are available in the scope of how the project is set up where young people of different cultures in our communities in different areas of the country will be able through the web to have access to information regarding youth culture challenges in trends as well as an initial outlet to use in expressing what they may have experienced in their life so far that relates to many of the problems typical teens in society or culture experience. My project offers assistance for young people for preparation in how fashion or trends can be used in each of their futures to spread messages of positivity as opposed to those of negativity.

3. Why is it that art is such an important tool, in your opinion, to helping young people build confidence and a stronger sense of self?

Art is such an important tool in my opinion when it comes to helping young people build confidence and a stronger sense of self because effectively being able to express yourself whether in physical form or on paper is how ideas and visions for a person's life should start: that is what finding one's self is all about. Youth should be able to express themselves through fashion and art, but if the only thing some are only doing is always creating messages of negativity or spreading those negative messages, how are our youth supposed to react to what they see? I think the answer lies within the question: they will not react; youth will often follow whatever it is being done on T.V., magazines, or even around some of their peers in school just because everyone else is doing it. Let's show youth how to do it right by showing giving them the right tools and ways to positively express themselves, not just tell them to follow someone else because everyone else is.

4. What do you see as some of the important connections between fashion and culture?

What I see as some of the important connections between fashion and culture is that they influence one another and that they relate to each other in a lot of aspects in terms of what is happening in society as a whole, whether it be through self-esteem topics, confidence topics, trends, art, or design. These are all products that can either be a negative reaction to what is happening in fashion culture or a positive reaction, but regardless you cannot have fashion without culture and you cannot have culture without fashion because fashion is culture: the ideas and how we as individuals interpret things or events that come from our surroundings as a result of the way we live are what shape the platform of how each person decides to create a piece of fashion.

5. As a businessperson, what have you gained by inviting young people to work with you, and what would you say to encourage other businesspeople to collaborate more directly with young people?

Being a business person what I have gained from inviting young people to work with me or feel that I will continue to gain as the project gets going with more assistance is a sense of purpose that I am giving back to a community of young people with talent that may have no idea what direction to start in or access to tools because I once was one of those young people with no idea about what direction to start in myself in going after my dreams with very little to no access to tools. What I would say to other business people in encouraging them to collaborate more directly with young people is to think of these young people as customers you are selling a product to: whether they are actually shopping for something you sell or not, get these young people to buy into the idea of planning for their careers and goals because that is priceless. These young people are the future, and no one can put a price on that. If we as business people want business in the areas of our communities and society to be more productive long after we have gone, we have to start working with our young leaders of tomorrow now.

Thanks, Chiffon!

A Great Blog about Kids and Communication by Nigel Lane

Nigel Lane is a speaker and coach who works with schools and parents on a variety of issues related to communication, motivation, professional development for teachers, and negotiating contemporary issues as parents. I enjoyed visiting Nigel's blog recently and reading his thoughts on a variety of topics, especially topics related to how to talk with kids about their use of online technologies.

Should your kids have smartphones? What are some ways to initiate thoughtful conversations with kids? These are just a couple of the questions that Nigel's posts bring up.

Nigel has a wealth of personal and professional experience. He's a dad and a grandfather, and he has worked with children and teenagers in several contexts, from schools to correctional facilities. He was a chaplain in a young offenders institution for a number of years, and he has worked in schools in many different capacities.

In addition to his speaking, coaching, and consulting work, Nigel is the author of 101 Practical Ways to Motivate Your Child, an ebook filled with practical tips.

For more about Nigel and his work, check out http://nigellane.com.au/.