Youth Leadership Track Workbook (each team member will receive a copy at the Summit)

Once again we are encouraging youth to attend the Summit in teams!

The youth will be able to participate in the Youth Leadership Track as teams to create a plan for a community project. Once back in their communities, the teams can implement their plans with the tools they received at the Prevention Summit.

Individual youth (not as part of a team) are still welcome to attend and will be joined with other youth for team activities. All youth must have a chaperone!

Youth Leadership Track

• The Youth Leadership Track is for youth in middle and high school. The Goal of the Youth Leadership Track is to teach youth in leadership roles to use the Strategic Prevention Framework* to plan, develop, implement and evaluate successful strategies for their communities.

• In these sessions, youth with their identified Team Adult Advisor, will receive information on substance abuse topics, hear examples of successful youth projects, and attend workshops to gain skills to use in their own projects.

• On Friday morning, the Youth Leadership Track will be split into two groups. One group (all the members of each designated youth team are to stay in the same group, or together) will attend workshops and participate in the leadership training and then participate in a Service Learning Project in the afternoon. The other group will participate in a Service Learning Project in the morning then the leadership training in the afternoon.  The teams will flip flop schedules on Friday.

• On Saturday morning, both groups will join together to attend a Youth Keynote and two workshop sessions followed by lunch and the closing keynote, closing activity, and drawing for prizes.

Youth Team Information

• Teams must consist of at least one Team Adult Advisor. The Team Adult Advisor will participate in the Youth Leadership Track with their youth team.   

• Teams can be as small as one Team Adult Advisor and one youth, or as many youth members as they want. Remember, for every three youth, there must be at least one adult. So if your team is very large, be sure there are enough chaperones to cover this rule. (If you are applying for a Youth Team Scholarship, remember that teams must consist of at least three youth.)

• All teams should designate a Youth Team Name. The designated team name should be placed on all registration forms in the TEAM NAME field. The team name will be used to link team members together and can be used for youth introductions, and activities.

Please Note: In order to participate in the Youth Leadership Track, both youth and the Team Adult Advisor must participate in all components of the youth track together and cannot attend any other workshops during the Prevention Summit.

Youth Outcomes

• This training enhances the relationship between the youth leaders and the Team Adult Advisor by focusing on a tangible plan development during team planning meetings. It will better equip youth and adults to develop a strategic project plan that clearly defines the activities that young people will carry out to address the problems and goals that their community is striving to achieve.

Team Checklist

• Designate a Team Adult Advisor.

• If your youth team doesn’t already have a youth team name, one should be designated and placed on all registration materials. Please use the same team name for all team members during registration.
• Download Scholarship Information/Application Form (optional) and send completed application to CASAT no later than September 17, 2010 by 5pm Pacific to be eligible to receive a scholarship.

For more information regarding the Youth Leadership Track, please contact Ivon Urquilla at ivon.urquilla@dshs.wa.gov