California Emerging Leaders Take On Chicago—Young Leaders Summit 2023
by Sydney Durand
October 31, 2023
For the first time, ACS CAN held a “Young Leaders Summit” inviting young leaders from 18-35 years old to engage a demographic long underrepresented and underutilized within the organization. The purpose of this conference was to focus on recruitment, retention, and engagement of this vital group to eventually create a nation-wide affinity group for the age group. Hosted in Chicago, new and experienced volunteers gathered to inspire each other and use their unique skills to strategize how to make an impact from a local to national level.
Members from the California Emerging Leaders were honored to present and be invited to the conference, making up ten volunteers and one staff partner, our amazing staff lead Mary. California’s Society of Emerging Leaders served as a role model for other states and the national affinity group—presenting at affinity group strategy sessions; our own executive chair even hosted a conference-wide listening session with the President and Vice President of ACS CAN.
NOTE: What is an affinity group?
ACS CAN is committed to ensuring everyone has a fair and just opportunity to prevent, find, treat, and survive cancer. We know that cancer impacts everyone, but it doesn’t impact everyone equally, and that is why diversity, equity, and inclusion are vital to ending cancer as we know it, for everyone.
ACS CAN is centering the lived experiences and voices of our diverse volunteer leaders through our affinity groups that influence, strengthen, and diversify communications, messaging, partnerships, policy initiatives, and volunteer recruitment, training, and engagement within their communities.
We currently have a Black Volunteer Caucus, LGBTQ+ and Allies Engagement Group, ACSí Se Puede Hispanic/Latino Advocacy Alliance, and an Asian American & Pacific Islander Advisory Group.
Day in the Life
11:00am Registration
12:00pm Lunch
During lunch, I was able to meet so many hardworking, passionate volunteers from across the nation. Listening to their stories was inspiring, and I felt incredibly gracious to be able to share a meal with them in Chicago.
1:00 pm Welcome
1:30pm Education: ACS CAN Priority and Emerging Issues
At this educational session, I learned about ACS CAN’s Priority and Emerging Issues:
2:30pm Workshop Overview
3:00pm Workshop #1: Affinity Group Creation
In this session, I learned about the various youth initiatives that are taking place in the Midwest and New York. I connected with several amazing young leaders, and look forward to establishing more coast-to-coast communication.
4:00pm Snack Break
4:15pm Workshop #2: Cancer Votes
5:15pm Break
6:30pm Working Dinner
8:00pm Free time
During this time, a group of us decided to explore the grand city of Chicago. We walked through the South Loop, along the river, and ended up at the Navy Pier. On the way back, we got some tasty gelato and shared some great laughs.
My Experience
Throughout the Chicago Young Leaders Summit, I attended several incredible sessions, led by many inspirational leaders. Before the Summit, I had never heard about Cancer Votes, but my favorite session educated volunteers about the program, and encouraged us to be innovators within the cancer policy space, particularly during election season. Cancer Votes leverages elections to advance policy, and serves as an opportunity to educate candidates and voters about the fight against cancer. We discussed how Cancer Votes can be used as a tool to increase involvement on college campuses during any type of election. We talked about how it would be valuable to implement coast to coast communication to create a unified front that could share resources and ideas. During the brainstorming section of this session, we brainstormed ways to recruit and retain volunteers, and market to campuses. During elections on campus, Cancer Votes volunteers could wear matching outfits or costume accessories to attract attention and establish solidarity on campuses. We could use chalk to decorate common spaces that would encourage students to learn more about Cancer Votes. To recruit volunteers, we would look towards other groups and clubs on campus that share similar values as our organization. We talked about increasing our presence on social media and establishing a brand. We focused on the items that we would include in a Cancer Votes Kit, which would be distributed to volunteers across the nation. In these kits, we would include Cancer Votes branded merchandise, policy educational material, and yard signs, for example. An important topic of discussion was creating a connected volunteer network and supportive volunteer culture. Opening up channels of communication would encourage collaboration across the nation, and make the feat of volunteering during election season seem less overwhelming. Making an interactive online map would inform volunteers about every election, whether it be at the federal, state, or local level. Ultimately, I thought that Cancer Votes seems like an incredible way to connect youth with the fight against cancer on the political level. Increasing the activity on campuses across the nation would be a big help in spreading ACS CAN’s mission. As a rising college freshman, I am excited to get my school involved with Cancer Votes as we help ACS CAN in making fighting cancer a national priority.
The Future of the Young Leaders Affinity Group
The Chicago Young Leaders Summit was infused with great excitement for the future. Volunteers from across the nation connected while exchanging valuable ideas. Young voices were highlighted, and it was an amazing experience to learn from my peers. We created short-term and long-term goals for our emerging affinity group. Our first meeting as a group is on July 10th, and I’m incredibly excited to see how this amazing group of young leaders positively impacts the cancer space.
