Leadership Richmond – Youth Now, a program established, and run by Volunteer Richmond Information Services, Leadership Richmond is a program for enthusiastic youth who are seeking a tremendous opportunity to establish strong leadership skills, and looking forward to working side by side with a local non-profit organization.
Youth Now is looking for applicants who are under the age of 26, and who either live, work, or study in Richmond. Asides from the obvious benefits, each individual will get a sense of what Youth now allows each individual youth, a part of the program to serve as an active board member on a local non-profit organization. Youth leaders will learn firsthand what it means to be a board of director, what the roles are, how decisions are made, and how a board governs an agency.
Intern on a local non-profit organizations board, and learn first hand how a board conducts itself throughout an organizations many decision making tasks, The uniqueness of the program is not only in the opportunity for a youth to be a board member but also for organizations to get an infusion of youth energy, new ideas, and a different perspective, while also contributing their own ideas at monthly board meetings. For each organization, they get the opportunity to get input from a fresh set of eyes and years, and someone who can bring fresh ideas. Each youth sitting on a board will have all the opportunities to ask questions, and to be properly mentored by fellow board members to collaborate together on decision making processes, and new initiatives for the future.
Some of the organizations who have participated in previous years have been Richmond Museum, Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond Women’s Resource Centre, and Richmond Chamber of Commerce.
Aside from sitting on the board, there are also monthly workshops for both the youth members, and participating board members to attend. Each workshop is meant to teach the youth as well as the attending board members fundamental principles about running and maintaining a board, while also teaching everyone how they can conduct themselves better in their working, and social environments.
Asides In addition to learning about board functions, and operations, and attending monthly workshops set up by the Youth Now program coordinator Jocelyn Wong, individuals will be able to take away from the program a better idea of the strengths they possess, and certain weaknesses they need to further improve on. The program is designed to help each person to identify their strengths that they can contribute to their boards, while also improving on their weaknesses with their fellow team members and mentors on their respective boards. Anyone who is looking for an opportunity to grow as an individual leader, while making a positive impact on the community should definitely apply to be apart of the Youth Now program.
For more information about the program visit: www.volunteerrichmond.ca
Written by: Hamed Amiri