Empower Montana’s 16th Diversity Day spotlights youth leadership, keynote and five Youth Lead Now awards

Empower Montana held its sixteenth annual Diversity Day in Missoula, where youth leaders delivered a keynote, read a mayoral proclamation, and presented five Youth Lead Now awards alongside community-club action projects.

The event, emceed by Drew Eblin and Patience Matt and introduced by Jess Moniz Hernandez, director of youth engagement at Empower Montana, focused on this year’s theme, “creative resistance.” "In a world that often attempts to silence diverse voices, creative resistance emerges as our most powerful tool for change," Moniz Hernandez said.

Why it matters: Empower Montana said the original youth effort that launched Diversity Day pressed the city to add LGBTQ people to Missoula’s nondiscrimination ordinance; the event serves as an annual showcase of youth organizing, leadership training, and ongoing programs such as the statewide GSA network and a free summer camp for high schoolers.

A proclamation marking the day was read onstage by youth advisory council members Lizzie Mills Lowe, Liam, and Lily. The reading included the text naming John Engen, mayor of Missoula, and reciting the original proclamation…