Meet Keanna Bantay

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Keanna Bantay. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Keanna below.

Keanna, we are so happy that our community is going to have a chance to learn more about you, your story and hopefully even take in some of the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Let’s start with self-care – what do you do for self-care and has it had any impact on your effectiveness?

My form of self-care has always revolved around my passions of crochet and digital design. I find crocheting to be a calming activity and an outlet for my creativity. Design gives me the freedom to express myself and experiment with different styles. These activities have had a positive impact on my effectiveness with my school and volunteer work. I have found ways to implement my passions into my work which has helped motivate me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I dedicate a majority of my time to my youth-led organization, A Welcoming Hand. Our mission is to provide support to the unhoused community by raising funds to provide necessities. I decided to implement my passions into this organization by creating handmade crochet pieces to donate. Social media has been an integral part of A Welcoming Hand as it allows us to reach a larger audience. Through our social media pages we design posts that spread awareness on the struggles of the unhoused. We often collaborate with other youth-led organizations to further connect with our community and increase our outreach.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Through my journey, I would say creativity, confidence, and patience have been the most impactful. For those early in their journey, it is important to be patient and to not rush things. Looking back, I was often impatient and compared the speed of my progress to others. I have realized that everyone is at a different pace and that quality is far more valuable than speed. Initiatives take creativity and confidence in your ideas. Many often throw away their ideas because they believe they are lacking or do not have the ability to execute it. To overcome this one must be confident in their abilities and potential. These three qualities are crucial to achieve growth in your journey.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

A Welcoming Hand encourages collaborations with like-minded individuals. We often reach out to other organizations that share similar values and are involved with their community. A lot of our collaborations are collaborative social media posts that aim to educate others on issues important to us. People may reach out to A Welcoming Hand through our social media pages or email us at [email protected].

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