Thursday, November 01, 2018

Youth as Leaders - Unlimited Potential

Over the past year young people around the country have risen to levels of leadership and political action not seen since perhaps the 1960s.  Let's hope this continues.

With this in mind I want to share three presentations that focus on roles young people can take to help build systems of support for themselves and for other kids who live in high poverty areas of the country and the world.

Once you've identified an issue you care about, how do you turn this into leadership that mobilizes other people to help you innovate and implement solutions...which may take many years, or even decades, to see any impact?





Any leader needs to find ways to tell his/her story on a regular basis, educating people and recruiting others who will help.  Since 1994 I've followed negative news media stories about violence, poorly performing schools, gangs and poverty  with map-stories that go beyond the headline to telling more about why this incident happened, and ways youth tutor/mentor and learning programs could be part of a long-term solutions...if they are available.   I call this a "Rest of the Story" strategy.

In this presentation I show that youth in schools across the country could be duplicating what I've modeled.



You can also see this on Slideshare at this link


While some young people might find and read these articles, or might develop needed leadership and communications habits on their own, I feel that educators in middle school, high school and colleges, as well as staff and volunteers in organized youth programs, could be mentoring kids to take this role.  The presentation below encourages schools to create Tutor/Mentor Connection type student leadership groups on their campuses.



This presentation is also on Slideshare at this link.

Each of these can be used to stimulate thinking of youth, educators and others in communities across the world.  I'm available to coach the formation of these groups and the articles I've written for the past 13 years on this blog, and before that in presentations like those shown above (see more here).

While I freely share these ideas I need help from readers to continue to do this work. Please visit my FUNDME page and add your support. 

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