Young London Future Leader Initiative
Report by Armin Forstner
From time to time, I stop and reflect on the work we are doing and on the various people we meet and teach in Positive Leadership skills. Most of the time, there is one advocate who believes in the concepts, even though they haven’t yet experienced them, and there is a lot of scepticism from other people who have their own mental models about positivity, leadership and development programmes generally. Typically, these are executives in organisations who have had their fair share of experiences, and apparently most of these have not been so memorable or life changing. Nevertheless, the majority of these executives come around after a couple of workshop sessions with us, once they have had a chance to experience the power of the material we are presenting.
Early this summer, the situation was quite similar with a remarkable group of young people we met during our very first Young London Future Leader Initiative. We partnered up with Break Communications, a London-based youth engagement and outreach organisation. Director at Break Communications, Stephen Oaks explains, ‘In the capital, there is a high demand for youth engagement and development. London’s young people face violence, poverty, inequality and mental health issues. Through this inspiring programme, we can empower young people to make positive decisions, and to improve their own circumstances and those of the communities around them.’
Across the capital (on a pan-borough basis), we provided 18- to 24-year olds with the opportunity to develop and enhance their leadership skills and their capacities to positively engage with and influence their communities. The project introduced Positive Leadership to vulnerable and disadvantaged young people, helping to create positive change. The programme was inspired by a blueprint developed and deployed by UNICEF in Lebanon, where 18 NGO partners had reached thousands of young people across the country in a total of 4 days of workshops over 4 weeks.
