Phoenix Urban League Young Professionals: The Best of 2019
From the desk of Greater Phoenix Urban League Young Professionals President Jerry McPherson:
As the year comes to a close, like many of you, I spend some time reflecting on the previous twelve months. For me, it’s an annual exercise to truly evaluate my efforts and output.
Whether it was a year of triumphs or failures, it’s the time of year where I’m most honest with myself. What went right? What went wrong? How can I improve?
This year I reflect as the President of 1 of just 60 chapters of the country’s foremost African-American centric organization run by young professionals, in its’ 5th largest city. It’s not lost on me — this is a pretty big deal.
The Greater Phoenix Urban League Young Professionals (YP) has served the valley for nearly 15 years by providing a vehicle for individuals aged 21–40 to become active in this community. Our activities have focused on four key pillars; Civic Engagement, Community Service, Economic Empowerment and the Professional Development of our members.
As I evaluated our year in direct consideration of those objectives. In doing so, I realized we had some pretty significant wins worthy of revisiting.
Western Regional Summit
Our 2019–20 board took over April 1, just a week after coming off what I can confidently say was the most successful event ever executed by our chapter; hosting the 2019 Western Regional Summit.
This was the first time our chapter had the opportunity to host this annual event, which brought together YP members of numerous chapters across the country.
Until you’ve spent time in the Phoenix area, you have no idea the gem this city is. This was our opportunity to showcase the oasis in the desert — and we did just that!
The summit included a welcome reception from the Phoenix Suns in the Effen Lounge, a tour of the “Silicon Desert” with stops at Intel, GoDaddy & Uber; and concluding with a community service event where we need some outreach with transitioning adults in the Phoenix community.
The jewel event of this weekend was a conference where attendees had the chance to participate in workshops along three different tracks: Education, Economic Empowerment and Professional Development. A total of 25 speakers participated, including some of the leading figures in the valley including Rep. Reginald Bolding, The Honorable Elaissia Sears, and TV host Charity Bailey, with the keynote delivered by Roy Tatem President of the East Valley NAACP.
In total, our summit hosted more than 400 individuals across the 4-day period, putting Phoenix on the map for so many young professionals.
Youth Leadership Summit
Within the past year YP has engaged in 8 separate community service projects, each of them important in their own respects. Personally, I’d say none were as rewarding as our annual Youth Leadership Summit.
This event provides our members an opportunity to work directly with the youth of the greater Phoenix community. As technology evolves, we recognize the need for the skills of our youth to evolve with it.
Before a child can become the next Scientist, Engineer, Artist or Inventor they have to first be introduced to the STEAM fields. Often time our youth are the last ones introduced to the STEAM field in any substantive way, this summit offers us the opportunity to provide that introduction. Hopefully sparking a passion to pursue a lucrative and stable career path.
This year, with the support Microsoft we were able to host over 50 children, between the ages of 12–17. They were first able to design a 3-D model of a boat using computer software, and using basic tools and supplies, build it all within a single day.
National Conference & Chapter of Excellence
Each summer the National Urban League hosts its annual conference uniting over 20K attendees, representing its’ 90 chapters and countless more cities. With a theme of “Getting 2 Equal: United Not Divided” the conference focused a great deal of attention on the upcoming Census and Presidential Elections, hosting a then 8 Presidential candidates.
Our chapter was able to send a delegation of four members to Indianapolis to represent Phoenix. It was a whirlwind of 4 days, allowing us to network, learn, and commune with our fellow young professionals from across the country.
Part of the 4-day long conference included a luncheon among our 60 young professional chapters where our chapter was honored by winning the 2019 Western Region Chapter of the Excellence.
In addition, our 2018 Member of the Year, Russ Hill, Jr. was awarded the 2019 Western Region, Member of the Year. Russ was a committed member throughout the year, serving on a number a committee including the aforementioned Western Regional Summit, Youth Leadership Summit, and Urban Expo.
Urban Expo
Going into its’ 4th year, Urban Expo provides a platform for many small business owners to introduce their products and services to the community they wish to serve while encouraging investment in our local economy.
This family-friendly event provided a full day of entertainment, activities, and is completely free for the public to attend.
This year we were able to add another feature to expand our event — a career showcase. This provided an informal setting for our sponsors and other corporations to market and recruit for career opportunities within its organization.
Thanks in large part to our sponsors ADP, Edward Jones, Mass Mutual, APS, and Arizona Informant we were able to host over 40 business owners and nearly 1,400 registered attendees. We even had a special appearance from Vice Mayor, Betty Guardado.
This event makes such an impact both in the short term and long term.
There were a number of other events worthy of recognition including our Grassroots Organizers and Activists panel, Prop 105 informational, Strength Finders assessments and Gentrifying Your Neighborhood, a workshop discussing Opportunity Zones, which I personally had the pleasure of leading.
As we bring 2019 to a close, I’m looking forward to all of the new beginnings the new year has to offer. 2020 brings about the start to a new decade, where new relationships will be forged and new programs will be implemented. We’re opening the new year with the launch of our new website, www.phoenixulyp.com
Above all else, new people will be introduced to the YP Movement. For all of our accomplishments we’ve experienced in 2019, it’s going to be the new faces with new ideas that launch YP onto its next plateau.
I look forward to leading YP into these new beginnings.
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