CASE Gives Youth Opportunities to Grow In Leadership

Eighth grade student, Terraj, leads a drawing activity for CASE. After walking students through each step of drawing, he worked individually with students on their drawings.

Written by: Sara Giguere & Kelly Nava

Youth leadership is a crucial element to our CASE program. We recognize the importance of giving youth the opportunity to practice taking responsibility, teaching others, creating goals, and receiving feedback and support. In turn, we have witnessed the positive impact that these leadership opportunities have had on our students.

When students are given opportunities to lead, we have seen them grow in their confidence and ownership in the program. They are no longer just a recipient of our program, they are stakeholders. They recognize that they have a say in how our program functions and in turn, they are invested.

Our CASE program serves students ranging from 5th-8th grade. This age and maturity gap can create challenges as there are many differences between a 10 year old and a 14 year old. Rather than letting age cause division between our students, we have encouraged our older students to recognize their role as leaders and those who can set the tone and model good behavior for our program.

At one of our CASE sites in Madison, TN, two eighth grade students decided they would use their talents and skills in drawing to teach others. They were given two weeks to prepare. They worked one-on-one with staff on-site to develop a lesson and had a session to teach staff before teaching other students. They were given feedback in the session on how to improve their planned activity for the class, as well as positive encouragement. After this, they felt prepared and ready to be leaders to their peers. They had something to offer and successfully put into practice leadership traits.

We were incredibly proud to witness the growth and confidence in our students as they led this activity. They demonstrated many qualities that a good leader should possess: communicating clearly, setting a good example, and empowering others. We are excited to continue offering opportunities for all of our students to lead, recognizing that these formative moments of leadership can impact them for the rest of their lives.