Basic & Advanced Leadership Training

(Better Known as: BLT and ALT)

Basic Leadership Training (BLT):

	BLT is the BEST thing that ever happened by and for teens in our community!
	- Katie MacKenzie, BLT trainer, YOB teen on the COPE board, Instigator of YEP’s Diversity Initiative, Community High School, 2004

• It’s a fun way to get involved!
  
  
• It opens the door and gives kids a lot of different and meaningful ways to get involved in the community.
  
  
• It helps kids identify the strengths and weaknesses of their leadership styles.
  
  
• It helps kids develop their communication and problem-solving skills.
  
  
• Kids learn how to work together and use teamwork to accomplish common goals.
  
  
• Kids identify school or community problems facing youth, solutions and barriers to those solutions, and community action projects to address them.
  
  
• You learn about what makes a non-profit organization (NPO) unique, what the role of an NPO board member is, and get introduced to the many different types of NPOs in our community.
  
  
• You also learn about the steps to becoming a Youth On Board (YOB) teen on an NPO board of directors!

The Leadership Team plans and conducts BLT two times a year, in October and March, for teens already involved or interested in participating in YEP programs or other youth-led community programs. It is a four-hour program, and is required for teens in YEP’s Youth On Board (YOB) program. During 2002-03, 55 teens participated in a BLT.

Interested in the next BLT? View our calendar. Email us at blt (delete for spam control, invalid address) @youthempowerment.com.

Advanced Leadership Training (ALT):

	ALT is the next step in fine tuning skills for serving on a non-profit board, and for leadership responsibilities in the Senate and other community organizations.
	- Jalle Dafa, Chair of YEP Board, Community High School, 2003

ALT is a great work in progress! The goal of ALT is to go more in depth into the finer points of leadership skills, and the role and governance of nonprofit organizations in our community. The first few workshops were piloted in 2001-02 on topics such as “Conquering Robert’s Rules and Creating Functioning Committees;” and “Reading NPO Financials.”

During 2002-03, our first full series of seven two-hour workshops was piloted with great success! Thirty teens participated in workshops that covered:

• personal leadership styles,
  
  
• preventing stress: time management, and communication techniques to prevent overload and cover your tail,
  
  
• teamwork & breaking those barriers!
  
  
• reading NPO financials,
  
  
• good ol’ Robert’s Rules and Creating Functioning Committees
  
  
• strategic planning, and
  
  
• defining diversity and identifying solutions to social identity group barriers.

The Leadership Team plans and schedules YEP’s Advanced Leadership Training. The ALT series is a seven part series of two-hour workshops over the school year. View our Calendar now to find out when the next training programs are scheduled. Email us at alt (delete for spam control, invalid address) @youthempowerment.com with questions. It is required of teens serving on a board or committee with a local organization through YEP’s YOB program. Pre-registration is required and YOB teens have first priority for available seating. Remaining seats are open to teens serving in leadership positions in any YEP program or other youth-led community program. Senate leaders are especially invited.

Over the summer, the next ALT series will be designed based on feedback from the previous series. The topics and schedule for the new ALT series for 2003-04 will be posted on this web page in August, 2003. Thanks to a grant from the Youth Council of the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, the 2003-04 ALT series promises to be the BEST!