Innovative Youth Leadership Training Through Everybody Wins! DC's  Readers Are Leaders Program 

At Everybody Wins! DC, we believe our students possess limitless potential so we incorporate leadership training as a central component of our Readers Are Leaders (peer mentoring) program.  We aspire to deliver impactful programs to every student touched by our programs and leadership trainings help us deliver impactful programs. 

Leadership training is critical for older students to grow into role models for the younger students, not just during program time, but throughout the school day and in the community; it's also a way of fostering self-esteem.  We discuss this role and its components (respect, making good decisions, helping their younger partner) during Older Partner Orientation at the beginning of the program year, during Mid-Year Leadership Training and at the Leadership Summit at the end of the year.   

This year's Mid-Year Leadership Training focused on being a role model.  Students discussed people they admire from history and today, including people that they see every day and together we brainstormed the qualities we admire in them.  Then, we discussed how the older partners are role models to their younger partners and what qualities they have that their younger partner might admire.  We genuinely want our older students to be conscious of their qualities and their positions as role models and leaders.  During the training, the students designed shields as a way for students to focus on their goals and positivity; it has nine components that incorporate how students see themselves, how they want others to see them, things they do well and their goals.