YOUTH LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

Detroit Community Justice Partnership is committed to positively and effectively impacting youth in elementary, middle and high schools in northwest Detroit through directed messages and positive interactions intended to disrupt apathetic attitudes toward gun violence, crime, and negative choices.
In 2000, Detroit Community Justice Partnership conducted a ten-week Youth Leadership Institute (YLI) at Redford High School. YLI was designed to deliver training to enhance and promote healthy and successful lifestyle choices for youth. The overall goal of YLI was to develop and mobilize youth as successful community leaders. The institute was conducted two days a week for two hours a day over the course of 10 weeks. During the YLI the participants interacted with national leaders, elected officials, and a host of other professionals, as well as, earned traveling opportunities.

The YLI curriculum focused on three Phases critical to meeting the desired outcomes of the Institute: 1) Youth Leadership (promoting personal development and empowerment); 2) Community Responsibility (promoting community service and volunteerism); and 3) Civic Responsibility (promoting civic literacy, involvement, and pride).

During Phase 1 (Youth Leadership Training), the youth participants received 20 hours of training that focused on the definition of leadership, traits of proactive leadership, confidence building exercises, peer pressure resistance, and positive self image and esteem building.

During Phase 2 (Community Responsibility), the youth were required to fulfill 15 hours of community service and family responsibility. These services included: community/park cleanups, graffiti and paint removal, volunteer lawn care services, visits with the elderly, taking care of siblings, and various other community/neighborhood projects.

Throughout Phase 3 (Civic Responsibility), youth met with their local, county, state, and national political leadership. They visited the Michigan Capitol and met with several elected officials and attended hearings on the House floor. They also spent a day with the US Attorney for Eastern District of Michigan, met with mayoral staff, and staff from the National Congress of Community and Economic Development in Washington D.C.

The final leadership task for the youth was the planning and execution of their graduation day and ceremony.

In July of 2003, two years after the completion of the Institute, Detroit Community Justice Partnership hosted a reunion celebration for the YLI graduates. During that reunion an evaluation was conducted to measure the impact the Institute had, and continues to have on their lives.

Upon evaluation, 75% of the students indicated that they had retained a 'good' amount of the information they learned during the YLI. 87.5% of the students acknowledged that the program had a 'significantly tremendous' impact on their community involvement. In addition, 100% of the students felt the information they received from the training sessions remains useful to them, of which 75% stated that it was either "extremely or very useful".

It is quite captive that 87.5% of the youth evaluated indicated that YLI had a 'tremendously significant impact' on their academic success. Moreover, 87.5% of the student participants confirmed that YLI played an instrumental role in their overall development as a leader.

Many of those students are now beginning their Freshman year at college. One participant, Dante Rice, noted, "Before YLI, I wasn't sure what impact I was going to have on the world, but now I am excited about starting college and I hope I get to see again, some of those professional people we met during YLI." Another participant, who is also a Freshman in college, remarked, "I still remember going to the State Capitol, like it was yesterday."

Based on these evaluation results, Detroit Community Justice Partnership does plan to conduct a Youth Leadership Institute in a Target Area school during the 2004-2005 school year.

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