Young leadership programs
now and then
Young Leadership
“Young Leaders for a Secure Future” is a program for violence prevention operated in schools and local youth councils. The program encourages leadership and social entrepreneurship amongst youth in order to prevent violence and risk behaviors. The program is one of its kind in Israel, adapted to specifically suit each population.
Youngsters themselves are the leaders of change; they are those that have the power to shape a better society and a violence free environment.
The program allows the youth themselves to serve as ambassadors shaping a society free of violence. We organize “Young Leadership” teams for children in grades five to eleven, each with a college student counselor leading the team. These teams carry out initiatives aimed at violence prevention – in their schools and communities.
About 100 Young Leadership teams – all over Israel – organise over 150 annual initiatives: film productions, play productions, a weekly radio show, adopting elementary schools, speech contests and more. All the initiatives are aimed to create a safer social climate, free of violence and risk behaviors.
The Young Leaders teams include children from different backgrounds; from economically disadvantaged families, immigrants from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union, Jews and Arabs, and religious and secular. The leadership group participants gain practical tools, and develop both personally and socially through empowerment workshops they participate in.
“Young Leaders for a Secure Future” is a concept based on encouraging the creativity and ability to influence possessed by young people themselves to promote a society free of violence, through the creation of practical initiatives related to the subject. The young leadership teams are led by counselor-students with leadership skills, who are not much older than the young entrepreneurs, and therefore close to them in spirit. The program is organized and guided by the professionals of Atid-Batuah, people with extensive professional background in the field, who are themselves working as full volunteers and as such constitute role models for the young program participants.
Program Aims:
- To develop young leaders that possess practical tools to initiate anti-violence projects.
- To develop motivation to take action to promote the quality of life and to prevent violence.
- To increase awareness to the dangers of violence, and develop practical tools for preventing it.
Program Components
- Granting scholarships to college students and training them to lead the youth leaders’ teams.
- The student counselors build young leadership teams in schools and municipal youth councils. The student counselors guide and instruct the young leaders in order to improve their personal and social skills and develop the entrepreneurial skills to contribute to society.
- Each group of young entrepreneurs builds a social venture aimed at preventing violence and risk behaviors.
Opportunities for collaboration:
- Sponsoring a young leadership team – yearly cost of 25,000 NIS.
- Sponsoring a cluster of young leadership groups in a whole city: yearly cost of 100,000 NIS.
Our Programs
Young leaders for Secure Future in schools – Flagship program
Youth groups act as ambassadors to prevent violence, social entrepreneurs leading projects in school and community.
Violence and cyberbullying prevention projects.
Preventing bullying and “shaming” on social networks. Young leadership groups are actingto change the discourse on the network, identify victims and assailants – and referring them to professionals.
“Tnufa: Creating a Secure Future in our Community”.
A community program involving parents, educators and children, focusing on continually improving the well-being of children and youth by preventing violence and risk behaviors.
Our annual national competition of all Young Leadership teams – an opportunity to promote values of understanding, respect and tolerance as a way of life to promote inner solidarity and prevent violence.
.The teams that win the first three places present their products in the our annual Galla event.
Promoting Tolerance and Understanding among New Immigrant Populations
“Meshi” (LTI) Program – Leaders of Tribes of Israel
A program for developing leadership skills and social entrepreneurship with an emphasis on bringing together young leaders from different countries of origin, to promote mutual respect, understanding and “togetherbess”, as well as exposing them to their cultural diversity. The aim is to prevent hatred, racism, and conflicts – creating an atmosphere free of violence.
The program was developed in answer to Cyber-Bullying which has been increasing tremendously in recent years: shaming, loss of privacy, harassment and bullying – to the extent that children refuse to show their faces in public as a result of the Trauma.
Atid-Batuah young leadership teams concentrate on preventing Cyber-Bullying: they encourage the victims to get help, show them empathy and understanding; they go against any aggressive expressions in the social media; they encourage the “bystanders” to be active and take a stand in favor of respectful writing in networks, as well as supporting the victim and being friendly to him.
