About LEAD the Way
What We Do
LEAD The Way Foundation is a youth mentorship program for 13-17 years olds in Snohomish County. LEAD stands for Leadership, Encouragement And Direction for our youth in the community.
One of the many things we try and impress upon our youth is the decisions they are making today, good or bad, may have long term impacts on their lives for years to come. We put them in front of others in our community who have been in their shoes, made life mistakes and are now successful. We want our youth to see living, breathing examples of community members who have worked through some of their similar life struggles and have come out on the other side. We want our youth to know, and hopefully plant a seed of hope in their minds, that they do not have to go down some of these roads in life their choices may take them.
How The Program Works
The LEAD The Way Foundation conducts 8-week sessions with our youth to establish trust and to build a relationship between them and our mentors.
In addition to the one night a week for 8 weeks, we require the youth to participate in one Saturday session in which the youth serve the community for a couple of hours.
During the 8 weeks there is training in leadership, guest speakers, life experiences, and real talk. After the 8 weeks mentorship program is over, there is continuing mentorship offered to the youth and their families.
Please follow our socials or check our webpage for the next upcoming session!
Serving the Community
At the LEAD The Way Foundation, we are really big on teaching our youth the importance of giving back to others in our community from all walks of life.
We want to show our youth the leadership trait/skill of providing a service to others which is selfless, meaning the youth will see no tangible benefit to themselves from their act of service, but they will learn a valuable life lesson of what it feels like to give back to their community and those in need.
We accomplish this by guiding the youth in our program to viable and real-world options in which they can spend a few hours on a Saturday providing a community-focused service. While we guide them, we allow the youth in our program to decide on exactly what project they want to take on and who they want to serve, and we make all the arrangements to make it happen.
"We want our youth to see living, breathing examples of community members who have worked through some of their similar life struggles and have come out on the other side."
