The Youth Leadership Program

We develop education programs for underserved youth that expand their potential. We help our students make an impact in their local community and enable them to expand and make an impact in local and global communities and businesses where they may study, live and work.     

There is a lack of diversity in leadership, particularly in upper management.

     Corporate America has remained predominantly white and male despite the reporting commitment to gender and ethnic diversity. According to a study done by McKinsey & Company, in the C-suite, 68% of executives are white males and 19% are white females, while only 9% are males of color and 4% are females of color.     

Employers feel that there is a lack of diverse candidates. The current model for corporate recruitment is insufficient for DEI initiatives because recruiters only interact with established, educated candidates.     

Diversity of candidates in the candidate pool ultimately starts in high school and secondary education. As an organization, The Youth Leadership Program aims to increase the diversity in the available pool of candidates by intervening early in a child’s educational journey and driving candidates toward pursuing advanced education and senior leadership positions in the business. 

  The goal is to partner with the community to help model the future of talent acquisition, emphasizing community and civic responsibilities. The YLP program is a grassroots solution that will help show children what they can aspire to be. Corporate engagement in the YLP will foster a top-down inclusion culture and will be a visual and visceral commitment by the corporation that can be measured.   

 A corporate partnership with the Youth Leadership Program is to assist the student in learning leadership and problem-solving in high-level operational settings, teach the student the benefits of being an executive, and change the culture of all entities involved.    

YLP is a year-long program. During the academic school year, participants will be engaged in 25 weeks of coursework to prepare them for the apprenticeship. During the summer weeks, students will complete a 6-week apprenticeship. Participants are students who are juniors or seniors in high school (17 or 18 years old). All YLP students are diverse at-risk youths.