20 teens take part in YMCA pilot

The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) has developed a new programme to help young men and women cultivate a deep sense of civic responsibility and a passion for community action and impact.

On Wednesday, the YMCA launched the pilot of the Young Leaders Programme, at its Pinfold Street, Bridgetown, headquarters where Programme Coordinator, Akeel Payne explained that the 20 participants between the ages of 13 and 17, will engage in a 12-week programme covering leadership and civic engagement, public speaking training and youth digital activism.

Payne said that the CIBC First Caribbean bank-sponsored programme would include training and professional development, youth activities and workshops with a focus on developing social skills and positive behaviors.

“The idea is to prepare young leaders today for the future. They will be developing soft skills, communication, team work, and bonding. Then they will go on to do a community project in one of the neighbouring communities.

“We will do a walk through and they will decide which project they feel passionate about or which social cause they feel passionate about. We will help them to outline and implement the project. A big part of the plan is helping them to develop their public speaking skills.

“We want the youth to have a voice, so we believe that for them to have a voice we have to give them the requisite skills to speak openly, with self confidence and to have the self esteem to go into the public and speak to the public and also to develop the communication skills to do this. So we are going to give them training with a Toastmasters group,” he said.

The Youth Leaders Programme will consist of two leadership development sessions per week on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. for 12 weeks, starting today. As an added value to the programme, each participant will be paired with a mentor to assist and guide them academically and professionally in their chosen field of interest.

“The last phase of the programme is to go in and be activists, speaking about social issues that are affecting the youth of today. So after they have developed the skills, confidence and experience to go into the public they are going to take it on social media. We are going to have live debates at the YMCA, we are also going to blog on our website, and we are going to invest towards promoting their message so that thousands across the island can hear what the youth is passionate about. Most of the participants are still in school, but some of them have left secondary school and are transitioning to tertiary education,” Payne said.

“After this pilot phase is over, we are going to develop another programme next year to engage youth and to develop their personalities and soft skills and to develop our young leaders for tomorrow,” the Programme Coordinator added. (AH)