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Youth Leadership Program
What is Youth Leadership?
Toastmasters International's Youth Leadership Program is an excellent way to help
teenagers begin learning more effective communication and
leadership skills that are needed to become successful adults.
The Program is an informal interactive workshop in communications
targeted at people under the age of eighteen which is conducted in
four to eight sessions of one to two hours each.
Ideally, there should be 15 to 25 participants; the minimum number is five.
An adult coordinator and assistants help prepare and monitor the sessions however,
the participants themselves conduct the meetings. At these session, participants learn:
- Speech preparation and presentation
- How to conduct meetings
- Effective listening skills
- How to evaluate and offer helpful advice
- Participate in and lead group discussions or meetings
Acquiring skills in speaking, listening, thinking, and evaluating
is quite important in today's fast paced world where people need to flexibly adapt.
To help in this process the teenage participants can be mentored by experienced
Toastmasters should they choose.
The sessions of the Youth Leadership Program covers
a variety of topics which play a part in good public speaking.
- Gestures
- Vocal Variety
- Using Visual Aids
- Speech Organization
- Taking the Terror Out of a Talk
- Effective Speech Evaluation
- Constructing a Speech
- Relating to Your Audience
For individual members of Westside Toastmasters or other Toastmaster clubs,
coordinating a Youth Leadership Program helps satisfy one of the requirements
for obtaining Advanced Toastmaster Gold recognition.
Information on how to embark on hosting a Youth Leadership Program can be obtained
through the Toastmasters District 1 Youth Leadership Program coordinator.
This person will help tailor the program to the club's needs, refer people as participants
and presenters, and provide other resources as needed for the program to be a success.
District 1 is the mid-level organizational unit (the western half of Los Angeles) that Westside Toastmasters is a part of.
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