Youth Leadership Millennium

The Youth Leadership Millennium (YLM) is a 7-month program dedicated to helping young people aged 14-24 in areas of personal and leadership development.

Each year, we organize a series of activities, workshops and events that are not only fun, but also encourage personal growth, increase participants’ social awareness and overall wellness, and facilitate creative and positive change in our community.

Core Program Values:

• Youth empowerment
• Learning how to care for oneself and others
• To instil life-long learning mindset of leadership values and skills

Mission Statement

To empower generations of youth by helping them develop core leadership skills and to pass on the values of integrity and compassion through experiential learning and mentorship.

Program Model

We believe that qualities that contribute to good leadership lie on a spectrum that includes these three areas:

• Personal
• Interpersonal
• Community

YLM programming strives to provide a variety of experiences, knowledge and tools that falls within these three categories. The goal is to develop well-rounded leadership in a holistic program.

Each component or activity in the YLM program aims to:

• Inspire the adoption of an important value,
• Encourage awareness, or
• Provide the opportunity and tools for the youth to practice a leadership skill

More often then not, it does all three.

The program is designed in such a way that allows themes to be explored and put into practice, and for the different values, awarenesses and skills to inform and build on each other throughout the program.

History

Since 1998, the Youth Leadership Millennium (YLM) Program has helped transform the lives of youth. Now, in its 20th year of operation, more than 600 graduates have completed the program and have moved on, using their developed YLM skills in all areas of their lives.

Before YLM began, the Duke of Edinburgh (D of E) Award program was offered to youth through S.U.C.C.E.S.S.’s Richmond location. The D of E Award is an international program that has run since 1956; it encourages youth ages 14-24 to participate in community service, personal skills development, physical recreation and outdoor adventures. S.U.C.C.E.S.S. facilitators decided to round out the Duke of Edinburgh Award Program and to make it a more holistic youth leadership program. Thus, YLM began.

The new program lasted longer, had more structure, included community involvement, offered general skill development. YLM is a holistic leadership training program with 4 unique focuses (Personal Development, Leadership Development, Community Awareness, and Adventure Expedition ) to help young people develop leadership and life skills. Participants can choose to return to complete all three levels of (Bronze, Silver and Gold) of the program, and then continue as volunteers and participate in the YLM Council. Every year, the program changes a little – to offer fresh speakers and new activities, but nonetheless YLM promises to give youth an unforgettable learning experience that lasts a lifetime.