Philosophy
Sweet Readers believes that, with guidance, structure and access, young people can achieve remarkable things and through the process become empathic, creative and collaborative problem solvers and catalysts for change.
Divisions
The Council is comprised of Young Leaders who head divisions, Junior Leaders who support divisions and help out with events and Ambassadors who represent their schools.
Council Members work within and between five divisions in order to achieve their goals of building Sweet Readers communities and educating the public on Alzheimer’s and brain health.
As part of the community building process, our Young Leaders facilitate after school programs and train new Sweet Readers.
Community Building
With input from all of our Young Leaders, this division is responsible for identifying which communities to support and which new partners and new communities to build and bridge. This division is also responsible for speaking at community events, organizing and running pilot programs and interfacing with our program partners to engage Sweet Readers and their families in the Council’s community building events.
Social Media & Communications
With input from all of our Young Leaders, this division is responsible for managing and growing our social media platforms and contributing to our bimonthly newsletter as well as communicating the Council’s messaging with our communities and the general public.
Science & Education
With input from all of our Young Leaders, this division is responsible for continuing and building the Leadership Council Interview Series to educate the public about Alzheimer’s and Brain health and providing content for our social media platforms and web site and speakers for the Council’s special events.
Fundraising & Event Management
With input from all of our Young Leaders, this division is responsible for developing and executing fundraising initiatives, such as our Make a Stand/Take a Stand initiative, our Next Steps Gathering, grant writing and corporate and community sponsorships.
Training & Curricula Development
In collaboration with fellow Council Members and experts in the arts, this division is responsible for developing a new Sweet Readers curriculum each year and training new Sweet Readers.
Accomplishments
Our Leadership Council was formed in January, 2015. After 17 hours of interdisciplinary training, our Young Leaders developed a set of goals & objectives, systems to ensure the Council’s structure would be self-sustaining with scalable impact, a set of special events and initiatives and a method for selecting new Young Leaders each year.
In July, 2019 the Leadership Council Advisory to restructure the Council based on growing interest and needs and to serve as mentors for our Young Leaders. The Advisory is comprised of college aged Council alumni. The founding Advisors currently attend Dartmouth, Northwestern, St. Andrews, the University of Chicago, University of Pennsylvania and Yale.
The Council has accomplished the following:
Exemplary Leader
We are delighted to honor Samantha K. who has demonstrated superlative initiative, collaboration and leadership in helping to expand the Council’s Interview Series!
Samantha is a high school senior who became a Sweet Reader when she was in the sixth grade. The compassion, kindness and patience Samantha demonstrated as a Sweet Reader has carried through into her everyday life and work as a Young Leader. Samantha is co-chair of the Science & Content division where she continues to exude positivity while exceeding expectations. Samantha shows up to each meeting prepared with questions and contributes actively to the conversation encouraging the other Young Leaders to imagine big possibilities and accomplish their goals.
With co-chair Anna, Samantha has served as an inspiration to her peers as she enthusiastically took the opportunity to expand the Council’s Interview Series by investigating, securing, conducting and editing interviews with four leading scientists. Her second interview, with the acclaimed neuroscientist Dr. Patrick Hof, led to an internship at Mount Sanai for Samantha and the internship was so successful it has been extended throughout Samantha’s senior year. Samantha consistently follows through with her tasks and does so with the most positive of attitudes, making it a pleasure to work with her. We are so lucky to have Samantha on the Council and look forward to seeing what she will achieve this year!