Youth Leadership Program 2006 Another Great Year!

Students Announce Venture Grants

The class of 2006!

 Students hold "world Premiere" for new video for teens

YL Update by Megan Dalton

Valley United Way’s Youth Leadership Program concluded a very successful 17^th year with the announcement of $2,5000 in venture grants to area agencies meeting needs identified by the teens in the program. excitement, anticipation and enthusiasm. The Program’s primary purpose is to provide a vehicle by which the Valley’s future community leaders are trained and developed. Since the beginning of the Program, nearly 400 teens have participated.

This year the Program’s membership consisted of twenty-seven high school students who live in the Valley and attend public and private schools. The high schools represented this year are Ansonia, Derby, Emmett O’Brien RVTS, Notre Dave of West Haven and Shelton. Each year, members are put through a series of training programs that help them develop their skills related to team building, problem solving and decision making, organizational and personal skills, as well as self esteem and self confidence.

Youth Leaders were selected by a Youth Leadership Advisory Team which included Melissa Pucci, David Grant Jr, Melissa Pucci and Scott Ragaini.

The New member reception was held on April 6^th at Valley United Way. It was standing room only as the room was completely full with incoming students as well as their parents. The reception was held for members and their parents to gain a full understanding of the Program and the events of the upcoming year. Since many of the members do not know each other, the reception was a great opportunity to first meet other members and the staff at Valley United Way. Jack Walsh, President and C.O.O. of Valley United Way, and founder of the Program, discussed the origins of the Program and how it has evolved in the last 17 years since its beginning. Patricia Tarasovic, Director and Advisor for the Youth Leadership Program presented an overview of the upcoming year’s timeline and welcomed the new members to introduce themselves to the group.

Click here for story and pictures from Camp Jewell 2006

The very next day at 4:00 P.M. the Youth Leadership Group boarded a bus to attend a weekend long teambuilding retreat at Camp Jewell in Colebrook, Connecticut. The group has been going to Camp Jewell for the past fifteen years.

Camp Jewell, a YMCA Outdoor Center, is a dynamic hands–on learning experience that emphasizes learning in several major areas: trust, leadership and communication. The Retreat was a "mini-outward bound" type experience designed to bring the group together as a team for the first time. Experienced camp staff is skilled in drawing analogies between each activity and these Youth Leadership members will be doing throughout the year. The Youth Leadership Group has been attending Camp Jewell for fifteen years.

During the course of the year, the students participated in a wide variety of training and special events culminating with the announcement of the venture grants. They facilitated food drives, assisted with Special Olympics and the Pitney Bowes diversity day program, ran their own car wash fund raiser and assisted United Way in running its own programs. Two of the students will now move become members of United Way's Allocations Committee for this year's spring allocation process. Other members will stay involved in a spring Leadership Training Day for Valley middle schoolers.

The Youth Leadership Program is made possible through the generous support of the Raymond P. Lavietes Foundation which provides core funding.

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