Columba | Youth Leadership Programme (original) (raw)

In the core engagement we take 12 young people from Grade 10 (selected on their commitment to building a better society) with 3 senior educators, including the school principal, to a lodge for 6 days.

We train a cohort of educators in the school to work alongside young people and ultimately ensure the program becomes embedded in the culture of the school so that the impact is sustained when we exit.

A highly skilled team of facilitators uses lessons from nature, history and culture to illustrate that every human being has greatness within and have the capacity to be a leader and implement change in their lives and their community through values based leadership.

Our graduates recruit peers and form catalytic groups that mobilize youth engagement across the entire school. Engaged youth work with adult support to achieve a multiplier effect of systemic change in their schools and communities.

They become role models in depressed areas where projects solve real life challenges.

Objectives are achieved through partnerships with the schools over four to five years.

Each year of the programme builds on the previous year so that, for example, the previous group’s participants can become peer supporters to subsequent groups.

Columba aims to facilitate a national movement of values-based leadership that can assist young people to connect and realize their maximum potential; embrace values as a compass for charting their life course, and make choices that can lead them to positive outcomes rather than fall into the numerous negative paths that threaten youth worldwide.