Are You Ready to Step Up to Leadership?

Leadership is a set of skills and attitudes that can be learned and developed.

Youth at any age can begin to develop leadership skills in their homes, schools and clubs.  They hold the capacity through their leadership to make a difference in others’ lives, their communities, their county, and their world.

All children have leadership potential.

4-H Leadership Clubs are an ideal afterschool activity for youth in grades 5 and 6. Club members meet once per week during afterschool.  In addition, they will have the opportunity to meet with members of other 4-H Leadership Clubs two times per year at a local 4-H Leadership Conference.

Goals of the Leadership Club:

· To acquire basic leadership skills. 

· To improve communication skills and teamwork. 

· To provide opportunities for youth to be leaders of today, not just of tomorrow. 

· To develop self-confidence. 

· To have fun and make new friends. 

For more information about 4-H Leadership Clubs, please call Lauren Traister,

4-H Educator, at 802-888-4972 x 103 or email lauren.traister@uvm.edu.

Hi Emanuel - Great talking with you! Attached is a flyer I used to promote the idea locally in Lamoille County. This will probably be good for your wiki. You can add that we piloted the program in Lamoille North Supervisory Union last year with Cambridge, Eden, Waterville hosting clubs and Hyde Park participated in one of the conferences I held. I am looking to partner with other afterschool sites to grow the program - offer this opportunity to more youth around the state.

While we piloted the program for 5th and 6th graders in LNSU sites the idea was to grow the program and offer 4-H leadership at the middle/high school so that youth can continue their club experience beyond elementary school. This club model is a great fit for MS/HS programs as leadership skills are today's 21st century workforce skills that employers are looking for. And, not all youth want to run for Student Council - but they may be really interested in honing their leadership abilities and working on school, community, state, national issues - to make a difference, to change the world around them.

Please remind folks in your wiki that I will offer training for club advisors and have a lot of curricula resources to share.

And I offer to run local conferences for participating youth - that way youth get the opportunity to go from big fish, small pond - to small fish, big pond - step out of their comfort zone, meet new friends, develop self-confidence, develop their ability to speak in front of strangers, ect.

Beyond that the youth become 4-H members and the world of 4-H and all of its opportunities open up to them!

Let me know if you need more information. Talk soon!

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Lauren Traister

4-H Educator, Lamoille County

University of Vermont Extension

29 Sunset Drive, Suite 2

Morrisville, VT 05661-8331

Voice: (802) 888-4972 ext. 402

Fax: (802) 888-2432

E-Mail: lauren.traister@uvm.edu