Youth Programs
Youth Leadership Programs
Leadership gets talked about more than anything else in youth work, and taught less. We treat it as a skill with parts you can learn, not something a few kids are born with.
Here is what our leadership work is for, who it is for, and how you can help it happen.
Who This is For
At-risk young people: those whose schooling is fragile, whose circumstances are doing more to decide their future than their ability is, and who have few adults around them with the time to teach this directly.
JEPF's focus is on young people in Jamaica, alongside community and educational work in the Washington, DC and Maryland area.
Why Leadership Development Matters for At-risk Youth
A young person who has never been responsible for anything does not suddenly become responsible at eighteen because a job requires it. The habits are learned, and they are learned by being given something real to run and being held to it.
For a student whose home circumstances are unstable, that experience does something else as well. It establishes that they can affect an outcome. That belief is usually the thing missing, and no amount of supplies replaces it.
What the Program is Built Around
Responsibility: giving young people something concrete to own and following through on the expectation.
Decision-making: practice at choosing between imperfect options and living with the result.
Communication: being able to speak for yourself and for a group in a room that was not built for you.
Confidence grounded in competence rather than encouragement alone.
Community involvement, so leadership points outward instead of becoming another form of self-interest.
The Jamaica Connection
JEPF's long-term objective is a permanent leadership training center in Jamaica offering exactly this, continuously, in one place. The center has not been built and no opening date has been set. The foundation is raising funds for it now.
Until then, leadership development runs alongside JEPF's educational support and mentoring work.
How Supporters Help
Donate, once or on a recurring basis, to fund the programs and the center.
Volunteer as a mentor or facilitator, particularly if you have teaching, coaching, or professional experience.
Sponsor the work as a business, or list your company in the JEPF supporter directory.
Attend a JEPF event. Ticket revenue is a genuine part of how this is funded.
Support Youth Leadership at JEPF
Whether you want to fund this work, run a session, or hear when programming expands, leave your details here.
Common Questions
What is youth leadership development?
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Structured practice at responsibility, decision-making, communication, and community involvement, so that young people learn to lead rather than being told to.
How is leadership development different from mentorship?
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Mentorship is a sustained relationship with an adult. Leadership development is structured programming that builds specific skills. JEPF runs both because they do different jobs.
Where will the leadership programming be based?
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JEPF is raising funds for a permanent leadership training center in Jamaica. It has not been built and no site has been announced.
Fund Youth Leadership
This needs people and a place. Both cost money. Both last a lot longer than one school term.