Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Elaine Smith-Poyourow. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Elaine, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

HOW TLT-TOMORROW’S LEADERS TODAY IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE IN NORTH TEXAS YOUTHS’ LIVES
Stress isn’t just for adults. Our youth are being impacted every day. December 2023, everytexan.org published that “Texas adolescents and teens are particularly vulnerable to the life-threatening effects of depression and suicidal ideation. Our youth are in a state of emergency, facing stress from the COVID-19 pandemic, widespread school closures, extreme financial strain, and inflation. Not to mention, millions of Texas families are without insurance with the end of Medicaid eligibility expansion. The National Institute for Mental Health estimates that half of all mental health conditions manifest by age 14, yet youth typically wait 8-10 years before accessing care. In Texas, two-thirds of children living with major depression receive no treatment whatsoever. Early identification and intervention are critical to reducing the prevalence and severity of mental illness in young Texans. The more than 7 million Texans ages 17 and younger, more than 1.2 million report having a mental, emotional, behavioral, or developmental (MEDB) problem. That’s 20% of all Texas youth. The definition used by the Census Bureau for its National Survey of Children’s Health includes behavioral problems, conduct problems, anxiety problems, and depression.”

Elaine Smith-Poyourow saw an opportunity to provide growth, opportunities and change programs as one way to fight this. As a parent herself, Elaine established the 501c3 as a way to serve those in underserved communities, and youth aging out of foster care and adoption.

“TLT-Tomorrow’s Leaders Today, Inc.” (** Please note: This is our full legal name, TLT must be at the beginning)

Elaine, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

In 2019, TLT started to provide programs focused on real-life skills, soft-skills, higher education readiness, career readiness, leadership skills and internships. Our programs are based on the needs of the youth 5th grade through adulthood, in the situation they are in. It is our responsibility to listen to the needs and we owe it to those in our community to listen and find solutions.

Out of covid in 2020 then came the inception of the TLT online library of free short presentations and courses in many subjects from How to do laundry to completing applications when no-one was meeting in person. Today in 2024, TLT has seven programs they offer both in-person and remote at no cost to their participants.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Our TLT Leading Leaders Intern program has grown remarkably over the past four years, fifteen sessions have taken place. In 2020 we had 17 remote interns take part in our program who attended two different schools. In 2024 we have had 154 interns from 32 schools across Texas take part in our program which offers twenty different positions an intern can choose to explore.

In order for TLT to provide these opportunities for ages 15 and older, we worked with many of the 54 universities, colleges and high schools who share these opportunities with their students, together with volunteers and faculty we created a curriculum driven process to this program. Many students have earned credit by taking part in our program. In 2023, 21.9% of our participants self-identified as first-generation higher education students.

Thanks to donations made by companies we are able to continue to provide these opportunities.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Besides creating the 100% remote internship program for Texas residents, in 2021 TLT created the Unlocking the Future program through working with youth in homeless shelters and underserved communities, recognizing they were in need of the basic skills to be self-sufficient. This program is built to fit the need of the group it is brought to. A 6 or 12-week program covering: basic real-life skills, soft-skills, higher education, career readiness, financial literacy and includes the class participating in a community project. Through group discussions, hands on exercises, speakers, and presentations about civic, corporate, charitable and educational opportunities they learn what resources are right in their community.

In 2021 we also saw an opportunity to partner with the Greater Anna Chamber and created the Leadership Anna adult program. Class VI has just been formed.

In 2022 the TLT Youth Leadership Academy emerged as an educational program experience filling the gap of personal communication, leadership dynamics, community social service organization resources, community’s history and growth, higher education and career opportunities, resume creating/review, financial literacy, community safety & local government. Participants are not getting this in school. They work with their group using their leadership skills to complete a class project that will benefit their community. The ultimate goal is to create a community of informed leaders.

In 2023 we saw another need and created the TLT Kids Serve program, TLT Kids Serve is a volunteer program where youth from 5th grade to 9th grade participate in volunteer projects. These projects are in partnership with other nonprofits, completed in a classroom setting and include a financial literacy lesson and/or a real-life or soft-skill lesson. Youth 10th to 12th grade participate in these sessions as project lead assistants building on leadership skills in identifying projects, coordinating, and planning for the session and assisting with the facilitation of the project.

Mid 2024 we launched our TLT Veterans Gateway program. The need has come to our attention resources to support active duty, veterans and retired military dependents, as they transition from youth into adulthood was necessary. Continuity of programming between their moves can help the youth feel part of the community and make the transition to a new community smoother.

From 2019 to December 2023, we served 912 individuals, in one or more of our online, in-person and/or remote intern programs. This results in 52.98% of our participants coming from low-income communities. including moderate-income levels that number increases to 59.26%.

The TLT Leading Leaders Intern program has reached 42 counties across Texas with 434 participants having completed an intern position at TLT, 78% finding employment afterwards, 12% remaining in school.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tltleaders.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tltleaders/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TLTLeaders.Org
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tlt-tomorrows-leaders-today-inc
• Twitter: https://x.com/TLTLeaders
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TLTLeaders
• Other: https://www.patreon.com/TLTLeaders

Image Credits

Elaine Smith-Poyourow