YMCA OFFERS LEADERS-IN-TRAINING PROGRAM THROUGH IT’S Y ACADEMY

The YMCA of Greater Nashua is offering a new Teen Leaders-in-Training (LIT) Program for middle school and high school students to engage with younger students in our after school programs at the Nashua YMCA, Merrimack YMCA, Clark Wilkins Elementary School in Amherst and Mont Vernon Village School.

Interested students need to make a commitment of one to three days per week between 4:00 and 5:30 pm. These hours do count toward graduation volunteer hours requirements.

The Leaders-in-Training will mentor students in from kindergarten to grade 5 in a variety of areas including academic mentoring, connections and caring, and physical fitness activities.

“This is a great opportunity for teenagers who have an interest in a career in childcare or social services. LITs are mentored and supervised by the YMCA Site Directors in the Y’s after school programs at the four sites. They will learn how to engage the children, will be shown what activities to run, and how to manage the students’ behavior. The LITs will be coached on running their own activities and lesson plans, as well. Each month all the LITs from across the sites come together with their Coordinator to share with their peers how things are going in the program, share their experiences, what the challenges and successes are, what ideas and activities they’d like to implement in the future and so on.  Our goal is that these LITs enter college or the job market with better skills and experience on working with school age kids, and could potentially become future employees of the Y,” said Lynne Boyer, the YMCA’s Executive Director of Youth Development.

“I have had a great experience with the program so far. Getting to know the staff and kids has been super easy and everyone has been super kind and supportive. So far I have been given multiple opportunities to show leadership and many opportunities where I have been able to view others step up to leadership roles. The program has been great and I look forward to it co tonguing to do so! “
~ Noah Daily, Leader-in-Training

EXAMPLES OF LEADER’S-IN-TRAINING RESPONSIBILITIES ARE:

Academic Mentoring: Helping with school assignments (like explaining concepts behind new math!), being a reading-buddy (reading to youngest children), leading hands-on STEM activities, and homework assistance.

Connections and Caring: Teens will meet with Y staff to develop activities and games that build social-emotional skills and form connections that can be used with the school-aged children they are mentoring. Our Y has its own positive psychology curriculum and the Sanford Harmony Social Emotional Learning toolkit for Teen Mentors to have access to.

 Physical Activities: Teens will have access to the Y’s 12Bursts.org program that encourages your children to achieve 60-minutes of daily recommended physical activity. Teens can lead students in some “bursts” of five minutes each.

“The goal is to offer different mentoring opportunities for teens to find areas where they feel comfortable or want to stretch themselves to try something outside their comfort zone. Teen LITs will meet monthly with each other and Y staff to reflect on their experiences and brainstorm ideas for engaging their mentees or overcoming obstacles,” Ms. Boyer said.

“The LIT program has been very fun, and honestly kind of heart warming. As the kids are warming up to me, it’s not uncommon for kids to swarm around me asking if I am going outside, or to wall ball, and if they can race me when we go outside. Its got a lot of controlled chaos vibes, and most of the kids are enthusiastic about pretty much anything.”
~ Spencer Goltz, Leader-in-Training

There is availability for 40 youth to apply for this program. Teens would have the opportunity to commit to more than one afternoon per week if they wish. For more information, contact Carlisa Choate at cchoate@nmymca.org.