Hope Leadership Academy’s 2010 Summer Institute hosted three programs for teens this summer, designed to further the Children’s Aid Society’s mission of providing children with the support and opportunities needed to become happy, healthy and successful adults: Peer Education Training, Financial Literacy, and the Youth Employment Summer (YES) Program.
Peer Education is an intensive training and employment program which helps develop teens’ facilitation skills. The theme this year was Healthy Relationships, and the curriculum included People Empowered to Address Real-Life Situations (PEARLS) and lessons from the Teen Relationships Workbook. In addition to developing their training skills, young people participated in enrichment components and weekly excursions that were designed to enhance their summer. The weekly trips were designed to broaden participants’ perspective on life and help them develop strategies for future success in all endeavors. From an organic farm in Brooklyn to a fun-filled sports day in Staten Island, the field trips helped the youth explore the five boroughs.
Teens in the Financial Literacy Program gained an understanding of personal finance principles this summer to prepare them to make educated financial decisions during adolescence and throughout adulthood. On a weekly basis, trainers in Financial Literacy traveled to different locations in order to facilitate workshops for Summer Youth Employment Program participants on a variety of topics including budgeting, wants vs. needs, and financing college.
The YES program is a summer program founded by Michael Stern, which places inner-city youth in corporate internships to prepare them to be future business leaders. Participants were placed in several fields such as retail, law, banking, and technology. Each Friday, the young people attended an educational component which was a time for all YES participants to meet and discuss any issues that may have occurred at their place of employment during the course of the prior few days.
On August 19, Hope Leadership Academy coordinated a recognition ceremony for all Summer Institute participants The event was designed to give participants an opportunity to celebrate and demonstrate their mastery of peer education topics covered throughout the course of the Summer Institute and to honor the participants of Financial Literacy and the Youth Summer Employment Placement Program for their hard work.
