Developing lifelong skills through youth leadership

Developing Awesome Youth Leaders!

Leading the Way was developed to improve youth leadership skills and to encourage participation in physical activity. It will support young people to develop the skills they need to successfully plan, organize and implement their own programs. Leading the Way can help to...

• Promote positive attitudes toward youth leadership, cooperation, and participation in intramural, health promoting school and recreation activities.
• Teach youth how to plan, organize and operate their own programs with increasing autonomy and pride.
• Develop youth's individual and cooperative leadership skills through participation in organized leadership groups.
• Reinforce skills such as cooperation, trust building, responsibility, decision making, and problem solving.
• Develop lifelong skills through leadership training that will benefit youth in all areas of their lives.

Who should use Leading the Way? Leading the Way is designed for anyone who is developing leaders among children and youth in a school or community setting:

• Elementary school teachers Helping teachers to fully facilitate student's first leadership role, be it a mentoring program, special event or taking on administrative tasks.
• Secondary school teachers Teachers and students have used Leading the Way to plan and implement both credit and non-credit courses and as a supplement to existing courses in their schools.
• Recreation and community youth group leaders Leading the Way provides the ideas and methodology for developing and implementing a youth-run program.
• Youth Leaders
There are many ideas on how to work effectively with others, plan activities and run events at schools and in the community such as:
• student council members
• amural and sport council members
• health promoting school committees
• special interest committees (e.g. environmental)
• recreation program leaders or camp counselors
• post-secondary student leaders
• candidates for international exchanges/volunteer work and other advanced youth leadership opportunities
Leading the Way supplementary resources: Intramuralology A quick reference guide for Intramural programs Convenerology So you want to be a Convenor... Active Living After School A program guide for leaders Health Promoting Schools A proactive approach to creating healthy school communities