Sara Button
If you are a young professional living in the Denton area, you’ve probably noticed the gap in opportunity for further networking and other areas of development. Sure, you can go back to school or connect with hundreds of people on LinkedIn, but what are we doing as a community to support the future of our city, our young professionals? This question was brought up recently and answered by a group of leaders who formed the Denton County Young Professionals group.
The Denton County Young Professional group is a collection of recent graduates of the United Way’s Project Blueprint. Project Blueprint is a 9-week long Board Leadership Training program in Denton County that preps its attendees to be capable of serving on a non-profit board. The students get to connect with experts in the fields of their interest and receive valuable insight towards jobs they are interested in.
Recent Project Blueprint graduate, Tiffany Youngblood aspires to work for a nonprofit organization and is thankful for Project Blueprint as it was an incredible opportunity to learn what it is that a nonprofit board does and what that looks like from a staff perspective. “The United Way of Denton County's goal with the annual course is to prepare participants to better serve our community, so to see a group of professionals from the 2014 class network with each other to form DCYP is just awesome,” Youngblood shares. “I think it's going to fill a gap in Denton and provide opportunities for new graduates and other young professionals to really experience what is so great about our community.”
Last week the Denton County Young Professionals announced their Weekly Coffee kickoff event to be held this coming Wednesday, January 28th at Seven Mile Café here in Denton from 7:15am-8:15am. The group will meet once a week, with the exception of the first Thursday of each month. The first Thursday’s will offer an evening-hour meet up, with the first event at East Side Social Club on February 5th from 5:30pm-7:30pm.
“Our leadership team is composed of young professionals who are passionate and fun so you won’t want to miss out,” Civic Engagement Chair, Randi Skinner shared. “We are excited to network with other young professionals in Denton County.” DCYP’s mission is to strengthen our community by developing our young professionals. DYCP will provide educational, social, networking, and volunteer opportunities for Denton County professionals between the ages of 21-40, although all are welcome to join the event. We hope to see y'all there!