The ASPIRA Youth Leadership Development Program

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The ASPIRA Youth Leadership Development Program
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Principles

• Young people are a community asset, not a
  problem.
• It is important to build meaningful relationships
  across race, class, gender, sexual identity and
  generations to strengthen the existing social
  capital of young people in low income
  communities.
• Youth leadership development takes a long time --
  it is a process. Caring adults need to invest in
  young people over a period of years.
• Young people need to be actively engaged in the
  process of community change at all levels, from
  the street corner to the board room.

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Principles

• Society must acknowledge and embrace the idea
  that youth are talented and capable of leading
  community change.
• Young people must lead positive change themselves
  in order for it to succeed.
• Leadership programs must identify, nurture and
  support more than a talented elite.
• The process of developing young leaders begins
  with learning how to learn.

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Elements of a Successful Program

• Help youth learn specific knowledge and skills
  related to leadership.
• Enable youth to understand the history, values
  and beliefs of their society.
• Facilitate the development of individual
  strengths and leadership styles.
• Facilitate the development of ethics, values and
  ethical reasoning.
• Promote awareness, understanding, and tolerance
  of other people, cultures and societies.
• Embody high expectations of, confidence in, and
  respect for the teens served.

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Elements of a Successful Program

• Emphasize experiential learning and provide
  opportunities for genuine leadership.
• Involve young people in service to others to
  their community, their country and their world.
• Facilitate self-reflection and processing of
  learning both individually and cooperatively.
• Involve youth in collaborative experiences,
  teamwork and networking with peers.
• Involve youth in significant relationships with
  mentors, positive role models, or other nurturing
  adults.
• Be developed around stated purposes and goals.

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Methodology Experiential Learning

• Having the participants experience the
  activity--perform or do it
• Having the participants share the experience by
  describing what happened
• Asking participants to process the experience to
  identify common themes
• Having participants generalize from the
  experience to form principles or guidelines that
  can be used in real-life situations, e.g., life
  skills and
• Asking participants to apply what was learned to
  another situation.

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Program Delivery

• The program will be implemented through the
  Aspira Clubs
• The Club Advisor will be the training facilitator
• Implementation Issues
• The clubs are youth lead. How you will facilitate
  the training at the same time young people keep
  leading the club?
• How you will facilitate the training process?
• How you will incorporate Experiential Learning?
• Goals
• Aspirantes will learn how-to-learn
• Aspirantes will master the use of information
  technology to advance their agendas

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ASPIRA Youth Leadership Development Model
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Program Components

• Prior to engaging in training and activities
  specific to each of the above streams, students
  participate in the semester-long Foundations of
  Leadership Seminar. This seminar will prepare
  Aspirantes to participate in one or more of the
  programs strands to
• Analyze the policy making process and leaders in
  this arena locally, statewide, and nationally and
  learn the fundamentals of community service
• Gain a better perspective of what it means to be
  a leader in the business world learn how
  entrepreneurship extends beyond the corporate
  world by being exposed to creative methods of
  problem solving and creative ways of identifying
  and securing resources in order to serve as
  leaders and.
• Better understand the critical role and operation
  of community-based organizations in various
  community contexts, learning about the role of
  their leaders -and of civic participation- in
  their local communities, as well as nationally in
  an increasingly interdependent world.

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Fundamentals of Leadership

• Unit I - Self Awareness
• Unit II - Effective Communication
• Unit III - What is Leadership?
• Unit IV - Vision, Mission and Goals
• Unit V - Leadership Skills
• Unit VI - Leaders-Followers Relations
• Unit VII - Diversity of Leadership
• Community Service Project

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Public Policy - Leadership

• Objective
• Analyze the policy making process and leaders in
  this arena locally, statewide, and nationally and
  learn the fundamentals of community service.
• Program content and suggested activities sequence.

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Entreprenuership Leadership

• Unit I What is Entreprenuership
• Unit II - What it takes to be an entrepreneur
• Unit III - Leadership and entreprenuership
• Unit IV - Opportunity
• Unit V - Ideas
• Unit VI - Market Research
• Unit VII -Planning

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Community Advocacy Leadership

• Power and Change
• Define and Research the Issue
• Organize Building a Community
• Recruiting Allies Networks and Coalitions
• The Campaing Plan
• Actions The Stepping Stones or Your Campaing
• Meetings
• Writting and Telling Your Story
• Sending the Message Through the Media
• Managing Conflict
• Making and Meeting a Budget
• Monitoring and Evaluating