YouthBuild Blueprint: Leadership Development

Leadership development activities are opportunities that encourage participant responsibility, confidence, employability, and self-determination. According to 20 CFR 681.520, YouthBuild programs can offer the following leadership development activities:

• Exposure to postsecondary educational possibilities
• Community and service learning projects
• Peer-centered activities, including peer mentoring and tutoring
• Organizational and team work training, including team leadership training
• Training in decision-making, including determining priorities and problem solving
• Citizenship training, including life skills training such as parenting and work behavior training
• Civic engagement activities which promote the quality of life in a community
• Other leadership activities that place youth in a leadership role such as serving on youth leadership committees, such as a YouthBuild Policy Council

The program and community also benefit when young people are involved in the program's governance. Asking participants how they would recommend changing or improving their own communities and involving them in setting classroom rules and standards can help build leadership skills.

Encouraged Best Practices in Leadership Development 

• Include leadership development in all components of your YouthBuild program: the classroom, the construction site, program operations, counseling/case management, and entering employment and Registered Apprenticeship. Put participant leadership development objectives in each staff person's work plan annually and make them part of the performance review process.
• Establish a set of leadership development competencies that participants are expected to meet before graduation. This will help you plan leadership development activities, workshops, skills training, and experiences linked to the competencies.
• Develop an effective policy committee of youth and staff that receives training on effectively participating in and facilitating meetings, meets weekly with the program director, and has a defined set of responsibilities. Responsibilities may include reviewing program progress and policies, assisting with interviewing prospective staff, creating new initiatives that will strengthen the program, participating in fundraising, and recommending solutions to problems that arise. Read through the guide on YouthBuild Policy Councils.

Return to DOL YouthBuild Required Design Components
Return to YouthBuild Blueprint

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2022
• Posted by: YouthBuild TA
• Posted in: YouthBuild