Young people in Airdrie will soon have an opportunity to gain valuable leadership training when the LEAD youth leadership program launches through Volunteer Airdrie.

Dave Maffitt, Chair of Volunteer Airdrie, is excited about the connections that will be fostered between Airdrie youth and the community through the program.

"There seems to be a few challenges, I guess, in terms of youth engagement, and we want to help faciliate youth engagment with the community at an early stage in their life."

Maffitt explained that the LEAD program was originally launched by the City of Calgary's Parks and Recreation department in 2008, and has been successful in teaching students leadership skills since its inception. The launch in Airdrie will be the first time the program has been implemented outside of Calgary.

The 10 week program covers a number of topics, such as leadership, personal wellness, communication, teamwork, conflict resolution and much more. According to Maffitt, the modules will be covered at meetings at Genesis Place after school on Wednesdays.

"Each week, we will address a specific topic, such as leadership, and the mechanism for learning is actually group-based activities, so there's actually quite a curriculum of activities that we can pull out of the toolkit."

Registration is open online until March 6, and Maffitt says space is limited.

"Any student that lives in Airdrie that's attending school in grades 7 through 12 is welcome to apply. We only have twenty spots available, and so it's kind of first come, first serve."

You can find the registration here.

 

 

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