Leadership training for high school students expands, thanks to $10,000 Verizon Grant

July 13, 2011 - PRLog -- Los Angeles — To broaden the network of young leaders who need the support, knowledge and tools to better their own communities, the Verizon Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Verizon, has donated $10,000 to the Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs (PBI) at Cal State L.A. to expand its Youth Civic Engagement and Community Leadership Training program.

PBI’s two-day youth training program utilizes interactive exercises and activities to encourage dialogue and intensify learning among student leaders in high schools in underserved communities.

“It’s hard to find a better way to improve conditions in underserved communities than helping young leaders develop their abilities to lead through comprehensive training that builds both character and resolve,” said Jaime Regalado, PBI’s executive director. “This generous grant from Verizon will help us do just that.”

The leadership program brings together small teams of sophomores and juniors from several high schools to teach them to promote and embrace trust, teamwork and thoughtful community advocacy. They also gain more tangible skills, such as how to analyze power, identify different leadership styles, and understand how resources are shared.

During training, each team identifies an issue that is important to the group. By the end of the second day, the teams develop plans of action that outline the activities they will undertake to achieve their goals. The students reconvene two months after the training to share their successes and challenges and to seek each others’ counsel.

The training program culminates with the student teams presenting their projects at PBI’s annual California Policy Issues Conference, with its audience of elected officials, policy and decision makers, and corporate leaders.

Gene Eng, Verizon vice president, strategic programs, said, “The Pat Brown Institute’s long history of civic engagement and community empowerment has been a tremendous benefit to the Los Angeles communities that Verizon serves.  The Verizon/PBI partnership will better prepare these students to become future leaders capable of addressing tomorrow’s challenges.”  

The Youth Civic Engagement and Community Leadership Training program, which is managed through PBI’s Youth Enrichment Policy Project, was established with seed funding from the California Wellness Foundation, which funded the pilot of the youth training program in March.  

With the Verizon Foundation grant, PBI will be able to bring its training curriculum to other underserved communities that continuously send students to Cal State L.A., including El Sereno, Lincoln Heights, East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles and Huntington Park.

The high schools in these communities that PBI will reach out to include Roosevelt, Mendez Learning Center, Garfield, Wilson in Lincoln Heights, Huntington Park, Huntington Park Academy and Locke.  

Students who participate in the training program also are able to pursue additional learning opportunities through unpaid internships with local policy and advocacy organizations. The internships enable them to identify the different roles they may play in these organizations and explore future career opportunities.

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The Youth Enrichment Policy Project
The Youth Enrichment Policy Project (YEPP) combines PBI’s extensive experience with at-risk youth in vulnerable communities with PBI’s strengths as a neutral convener on important and pressing policy issues. The project seeks to decrease youth and gang violence by establishing a setting where community residents, stakeholders and elected officials can unite and discuss the threats that put neighborhoods at risk. Through PBI’s unique approach of working with the five sectors (community, business, labor, education, and nonprofit), YEPP is able to provide safe venues for civic engagement, policy, advocacy and public education on a local and accessible level.

The Edmund G. “Pat” Brown Institute of Public Affairs, a presidentially chartered institute at California State University, Los Angeles, is a non-partisan public policy center dedicated to sustaining vision and legacy of former California Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown through convening public policy forums, engaging multi sector stakeholders and diverse communities, and conducting timely policy research and community driven initiatives. For more information, go to www.PatBrownInstitute.org.