Why is Youth Leadership Important in Our Society

YOUTH LEADERSHIP OVERVIEW

Youth leadership is a valuable skill for young people in today's society. 
Young people need leadership abilities if they are to be fulfilled and make a 
positive contribution to society (Scheer, 1997).The goal of this research review is to highlight the value of leadership in both children and adults. The goal of this review is to demonstrate how leadership abilities assist youth organizations.
Understanding Leadership and its Characteristics

diversity

Youth leadership is the practice of teens exercising authority over themselves or others

Youth leadership has been elaborated upon as a theory of youth development in which young people gain skills and knowledge necessary to lead civic engagement, education reform and community organizing activities. Countless programs around the world seek to teach young people particular skills associated with leadership, particularly those programs associate with youth voice or youth empowerment. It is based on the study that it should strengthen individual and community capacity.

Providing the conditions for positive youth development is a responsibility shared by families, schools, and communities. The conditions for healthy youth development reside in families, schools, and communities.
Families promote healthy youth development when they:

• provide support;
• have positive family communication;
• are involved in their adolescent’s school;
• have clear rules and consequences and monitor their adolescent’s whereabouts;
• provide positive, responsible role models for other adults, adolescents, and siblings;
• expect their adolescent to do well; and
• spend time together.

Youth leadership development is a process that prepares young people to navigate adolescence and realize their potential as an adult. An important aspect of youth development is leadership programming. Youth leadership programs focus on youth developing the following:

• the ability to analyze his or her own strengths and weaknesses, set personal and vocational goals, and have the self-esteem, confidence, motivation, and abilities to carry them out (including the ability to establish support networks in order to fully participate in community life and effect positive social change)
• the ability to guide or direct others on a course of action, influence the opinions and behaviors of others and serve as a role model.

While youth leadership development programs meet basic physical, developmental, and social needs, leadership programs seek to position youth as leaders in their community, to take positions of leadership in companies, organizations and professional associations. Through youth leadership programs, young people gain the skills and knowledge to lead civic engagement, education reform, and community organizing activities. Youth leadership is both an internal and an external process (NCWD 2005).