Carli wanted to make a difference in her community through her Gold Award project by reaching out to teenage youth groups in her church. The purpose of BUILD, which stands for Being United in Living Discipleship, was to increase participation in the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) by encouraging high-schoolers to come to her church for weekly meetings and outreach programs. She created a video with two other youth group members and used social media venues such as YouTube and Facebook to promote the project and reach her target audience. Because of her efforts, youth attendance at CYO retreats, meetings and outreach events more than doubled, resulting in increased benefits to the community as well. “I learned that reaching out to those in my community was very rewarding and not as difficult as I thought it would be,” Carli stated.
Carli is a junior at Oak Mountain High School and the daughter of Keith and Leslie of Birmingham.
