Leadership Academy

Training youth in leadership skills

Leadership Academy is a one year project aimed at preparing young people for active participation and engagement in their community and to lead positive social change.

Experience by Leaders in projects with young people led to the conclusion that youth leadership development requires a continuous organized program that operates over an extensive period of time. The Leaders’ team therefore developed the concept of the Leadership Academy to develop the skills of young people and promote democratic values, respect for human rights and personal freedoms, as well as environmental awareness.

The first year of the project will focus on the establishment of the program before moving on in future to target different areas of Palestine.  The overall objective is to nurture a core group of young people who are enthusiastic about civic participation, willing to lead others in promoting a socially relevant agenda, and dedicated to social justice and democracy in leading social change in Palestine.

The graduates of the Academy will have the potential to become leaders of meaningful social change in their society and will serve their communities in diverse areas of development while promoting peace, tolerance, democracy, and lobbying for the rights of the underprivileged.
The project is designed to achieve four main results in order to complete the establishment of the Leadership Academy by the end of 2011.

1. Develop a team of qualified core trainers in leadership to deliver the training program.
2. Design the content, activities and procedures for a leadership development program with the participation of the core trainers. This program will focus on three main themes: leadership skills, schools of political thought, and the Palestinian political system.
3. Position the Academy as a primary provider of leadership capacity development and establish a reputation for a distinguished program.
4. Conduct pilot testing of the first group of participants to identify shortcomings in the developed curriculum and potential for improvement.  The pilot testing will take place with a maximum of 25 participants and will be followed by detailed evaluation to improve the program over following phases.

Leadership Academy is funded by the Olof Palme International Center.