By: Nadine Sander-Green
We had an incredible weekend here in Whitehorse for our first-ever Leaders in Training conference. It’s probably fair to say we – the facilitators, adult chaperones and of course, the youth – all slept like logs last night. It was a fun weekend, but we worked hard. Really hard.
Here’s what happened: sixteen youth from across the territory and Northern Alberta joined BYTE’s facilitation team for two days of workshops at the Yukon Inn. The goal was to give exceptional youth from Northern communities the skills to be facilitators in their own communities. It’s something that’s not going to happen entirely over one weekend, but after meeting this group we’re confident they have the determination and grit to become whatever kind of leaders they dream to be.
The BYTE team welcomes nervous youth to the weekends programming. At this point, they had no idea what to expect!
If you walked into the room Saturday morning and walked in again as the conference was wrapping up you would be surprised it was the same group of youth. The conference started off with a quiet, maybe nervous, vibe and ended with such support, creativity and energy. Through icebreakers, special guests presentations and our facilitation training, the youth got to know each other for who they really were. Some were shy, some were outgoing, some grew up in Old Crow while others only an hour from Whitehorse in Carcross. Some were already youth workers while others were new to the scene. Being in such a safe, inclusive environment allowed everyone, no matter where they came from or how much experience they had, to break through to new levels of leadership.
BYTE facilitator Jesse explains a game to the youth.
We started off with icebreaker games to get to know each other and to heighten the energy with laughter and movement. We ran, we threw a ball around to learn each others names, we cheered each
other on in a massive game of paper, rock scissors. Since the point of the weekend was to teach youth how to be leaders and facilitators, we got right to it.Youth drew outlines of their bodies on a huge piece of paper, and inside brainstormed what qualities a good leader might have; they complete a quiz to see what leadership style rang true to them; they broke off into smaller groups and drew what their ideal community would look like. Perhaps the most challenging part of the workshop was when participants got up in front of the group and facilitated their own games, especially when the rest of the group pretended to be disengaged or disruptive. It wasn’t easy, and it exposed the challenges of being a BYTE facilitator, but participants rose to the occassion.
Step 1 for mapping out the characteristics of a good leader: trace the outline!
Our team was so impressed with the level of engagement the youth showed all weekend. In the words of BYTE’s Executive Director, Chris, the conference went “ better than I could have ever expected.â€
Stay tuned to learn more a out what our youth leaders are up to. They’ll be updating us every month with a multimedia project based on what’s happening in their communities. A big congratulations goes out to all the youth who put their heart into this weekend; it really showed.
If you want to see more great photos from the Leaders in Training weekend, click here to check out our Facebook gallery!