This project will help the recovery of Puerto Rico by establishing a "community leadership incubator" to prepare youth who were challenged to assume community leadership roles for which they had no training and/or experience, following the physical and social devastation caused by Hurricane Maria. This project's objective is to expand the social capital of a group of volunteer youth by designing and delivering a theory and practice "Community Leaders Training Module" through a one-year period.
The impact that Hurricanes Maria and Irma has had on Puerto Rico has been enormous.The communities we serve were hard hit by the storms, causing a crisis that took a toll on the limited support system that our at-risk youth have. Our project graduates and Leadership Program Members confronted the challenge of assuming community leadership roles, for which they had no training and/or experience. We urgently need to train our youth for these roles.
Through this recent experience, we recognized that we urgently needed to prepare our youth for community leadership roles that will enable them to become active participants in the recovery and rebuilding of their communities and our Island. By designing and delivering a theory and practice "Juvenile Community Leaders Training Module" we will expand the social capital of a group of youth who will be ready to take community leadership roles to address needs and restoration efforts.
Training youth leaders will endow our communities with a human resource to better respond to the effects of future climatic events. These community youth leaders will create alliances which will build a support system composed of a variety of community members. In the long term, this system will enable communities to respond and recover more effectively and quickly, while other assistance arrives. Also these young leaders will become role models and mentors for other youth within their community
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
