Often, we overlook the power of young people to create change. Yes to Youth is a podcast series getting to know changemakers who started early and are making a real impact, in spite of and often because of their age and identity. Yes to Youth is presented by Let’s Care in collaboration with LearnServe International. Your host is Matt Scott, creator of Let's Care and longtime LearnServe volunteer.

Today's episode features a bonus episode centering Clint Smith III, recipient of LearnServe's 2022 Civic Champion Award and featuring the voices of LearnServe Co-Director and CEO Scott Rechler and alumni Charlotte Rose LaMotte, Ra'mya Davis, Chris Cole, and Kayla Waysome.

Clint Smith is a staff writer at The Atlantic. He is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning With the History of Slavery Across America, which was a #1 New York Times bestseller and was selected by the New York Times as one of the 10 best books of 2021. He is also the author of the poetry collection Counting Descent, which won the 2017 Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award.

Clint has received fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New America, the Emerson Collective, the Art For Justice Fund, Cave Canem, and the National Science Foundation. His essays, poems, and scholarly writing have been published in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Poetry Magazine, The Paris Review, the Harvard Educational Review, and elsewhere. He is a 2014 National Poetry Slam champion and a 2017 recipient of the Jerome J. Shestack Prize from the American Poetry Review.

Clint received his B.A. in English from Davidson College and his Ph.D. in Education from Harvard University. Born and raised in New Orleans, he currently lives in Maryland with his wife and their two children.

For more on LearnServe International, visit www.learn-serve.org.

For more on Let's Care, visit www.lets.care.

Amy Dumas is best known as WWE wrestler and Hall of Famer Lita. Over the last 20+ years, she has made her mark in sports entertainment, paving a way for women (and so many others) in pro wrestling and beyond to make road where there weren't roads. This weekend, Amy is taking part in WWE's Royal Rumble PPV, which reminds us of a few years back, when she wore a "Time's Up" shirt on a global stage, sending a message about the treatment of women and abusers in the entertainment industry.

This interview appears in the 20s & Change: San Francisco film, which has been recognized at the 2021 San Francisco Black Film Festival and Las Vegas Queer Arts Film Festival. Watch the film at www.lets.care.

Amy is an animal activist, a musician, a mental health advocate, a supporter of women's rights and justice for women dealing with insane laws to control their bodies, and someone who can not be contained. Amy is making an impact while dancing to the beat of her own drum, bringing the punk rock D.I.Y. spirit to the table each and every day. Follow Amy on Twitter @AmyDumas and on Instagram @MacheteGirl.

For more on Let's Care, visit www.lets.care.

Follow Matt Scott on social media @MattScottGW.

20s & Change: San Francisco (hosted by Matt Scott) is our pilot film to “pass the mic” to the changemakers who often go unheard. It has been honored and screened at the 2021 San Francisco Black Film Festival and Las Vegas Queer Arts Film Festival.

20s & Change features a number of themes that are relevant to young changemakers, in particular. Those themes include:

The film is meant to model conversations about impact and identity. These are conversations that our world needs, in order to help others see their own identities as superpowers in changing the world for the better.

Celebrate 5 years with us at www.lets.care/five.

Learn more about Let's Care at www.lets.care.

Follow Matt Scott: @MattScottGW on all platforms

Watch the YouTube video here, or listen in as Let's Care (www.lets.care) founder and host Matt Scott (@MattScottGW) interviews Erin Alexander (@MelaninErinVA) as part of the Let’s Care LIVE Saturday Conversation Series. Erin Alexander is the founder of Master Your Glo, the Business of Soul Searching (BOSS) podcast, and Melanin Erin Virtual Assistance. Learn from Erin's perspective, rooted in mental health, to find how you can design the lifestyle you deserve. Watch more conversations from this series at www.lets.care/live.

"Melanin Erin Virtual Assistance amplifies businesses by executing high level tasks so you can show up authentically in your business. Erin's high attention to detail, strong sense of communication and dedication to deadlines is what has secured her residual clients. If hired she will not only infuse her dynamic radio and tech knowledge into your strategy but help you articulate all needs to strengthen the voice of your business in 2021 and beyond.

www.melaninerinvirtualassistance.com

Watch the YouTube video here, or listen in as Let's Care (www.lets.care) founder and host Matt Scott (@MattScottGW) interviews Attia Taylor (@AttiaTaylor) as part of the Let’s Care LIVE Saturday Conversation Series. 

Attia Taylor is a NYC based musician, writer, and content producer. She is the founder of Womanly, The Dorothy and a member of The Art Dept Collective. Her work is rooted in social justice, art, and design, to bring inclusive and culturally relevant content to sound, print and digital realms. She is passionate about building and cultivating communities through journalism, music, storytelling, and research.

www.attiataylor.com

Watch the YouTube video here, or listen in as Let's Care (www.lets.care) founder and host Matt Scott (@MattScottGW) interviews Roxann Stafford (@jroxann) as part of the Let’s Care LIVE Saturday Conversation Series. Roxann Stafford, is a systems alchemist and architect co-creating universal prosperity. She brings a lens of justice, interdependence and well-being, as well as history and ancestry, to her work supporting local journalism at the Knight Foundation, and beyond.

“Roxann Stafford is the managing director of the Knight-Lenfest Local News Transformation Fund, a $20-million initiative that works to empower local news organizations to build trust with their audiences while producing outstanding journalism and developing new revenue streams that can enable them to reach long-term business sustainability.” 

Connect with Roxann: http://linkedin.com/in/roxannstafford/

Watch the YouTube video here, or listen in as Let's Care (www.lets.care) founder and host Matt Scott (@MattScottGW) interviews Amy Wilson (@AmyJWilson), Author of “Empathy for Change” and an epic storyteller, social impact entrepreneur, ecosystem builder, strategist, and innovator , as part of the Let’s Care LIVE Saturday Conversation Series.

“In Empathy for Change, former White House entrepreneur-in-residence Amy J. Wilson dives into the intricate science of empathy, debunking common myths and sharing practical uses for a better society. Having built cultures of innovation and change across multiple sectors, she knows that when we do not design with compassion, we remove the humanity and closeness we have to one another.”

Learn more about Amy: https://www.amyjwilson.com

Get her book: https://www.amyjwilson.com/empathyforchange

"Laleh Bakhtiar, an Islamic and Sufi scholar and the first American Muslim women to produce a translation of the Quran, passed away peacefully on Sunday October 18, 2020 in Chicago, from Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), a rare blood disorder. She was 82."

Dr. Bakhtiar wasn't only a Let's Care interviewee but was so much more. She was bold, and stood up for positive impact she believed in -- regardless of the risk. Even in her passing, the world is left with countless artifacts of her impact -- including 25 published books about Islam, Sufism, and more, and numerous interviews, videos, and storytelling pieces by a variety of outlets and storytellers, including her daughter Davar Ardalan (NPR, SecondMuse, White House Presidential Innovation Fellows, National Geographic). Laleh has a legacy like no other, and it will continue to live on and change lives far beyond her passing -- through her family and those who loved her and through all she touched.

Read "Courage, Temperance, Justice and the Enduring Wisdom of the late Scholar Laleh Bakhtiar" by Davar Ardalan

Read "Trying to digest the grief-soaked digital breadcrumbs" by Matt Scott

For more on Let's Care, visit www.lets.care. Questions, comments, changemaker suggestions? Get in touch at [email protected].

This week's episode of Let's Care: The 180º of Impact Podcast features writer, director, filmmaker B. Monét. Scroll to see her bio and learn more about her story or, better yet... listen to this episode!