In many ways 2023 was also a year of renaissance for DoSomething – thank you Beyoncé. Not only did we celebrate three decades of youth-led impact at The Futures Ball in November, but we ushered in a new generation of changemakers through the launch of the Generation Future Award and welcomed the oldest members of Gen Alpha (the newly 13 year olds born in 2010) onto the DoSomething platform. DoSomething’s tech powered platform is only as good as its responsiveness to the needs of our community. We spent much of 2023 listening to our members and revamping our platform from the ground up to keep pace with technology and the needs of Gen Z and Gen Alpha. One year into our new strategy, we began to see the impact of our new, deeper programmatic offerings and approach. This included the launch of our new flagship civic engagement program The Art of Democracy. Through this initiative, we engaged approximately 1,000 youth in person to understand their personal civic why, and leverage their civic identity to get engaged to push for the change they seek. Leading into the critical 2024 election year, this program couldn’t be more timely when the fundamental principles of our democracy are being tested daily. It is not cliche to say that now more than ever, we need young people to Do Something. Our goal is to register at least 100,000 new young people to vote in the 2024 elections and equip them to claim their role in shaping our democracy as core to their identity. Efforts to ban books were at a fever pitch in 2023. We did our part by activating over 20,000 young people to fight back against those efforts through the simple act of reading and equipped them to advocate for diverse perspectives in schools nationwide. We’ll double down on these efforts in 2024 leveraging our new tech platform’s dialogue-centric and customizable capabilities - enabling youth to share perspectives and drive action together. We heeded the clarion call to address the rising youth mental health crisis by launching Camp Reboot, our year-long virtual mental health program. We took young people on a new, tiered journey offering them several tools to address their and their peers’ mental health needs; all the while destigmatizing mental health access through accessible and diverse activities and offerings. We launched our first cohort of mental health champions - The EMBER Collective. We will be expanding our programming to address the pernicious challenge young people face as they balance protecting their mental health with the realities of living in a digital age. History has repeatedly shown us that young people don’t need an invitation to press for change. Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter wisely said, “I believe that one of the most important things to learn in life is that you can make a difference in your community no matter who you are or where you live.” Our role at DoSomething is to be the hub for them to make a difference and fuel them to lead the change they seek together. Looking ahead to the opportunities that 2024 will bring, we’re energized by the promise of our new platform, our new programming, and the work to support young people to claim our democracy and do something to build a more just, equitable world.