Focus St. Louis is a nonprofit organization whose members share a vision and a commitment to work together to improve the St. Louis region as a place to live and work.

How is this Leadership program different from other programs?

A school or group forms a team of 6-8 students who meet each month with students form 20 other school districts and the Girl Scout Council, 125 students, from all over the metro area. You have the opportunity to experience the program with people with people from communities and from backgrounds different from your own; learning from and sharing with each other.

Youth Leadership St. Louis (YLSL) is more than just learning skills and more than just experiencing the community; it's practicing skills while immersing ourselves in the different issues and with people affecting the future of our community.

Participants are selected after a process of application and interview. Selected students receive a full scholarship to attend the program from your school and community contributions.

 

Focus St. Louis is looking for people:

with a positive attitude.

interested in actively participation in the program.

who take responsibility for their own learning, their commitments and their ideas.

who get excited going new places, meeting new people and bean challenged with new ideas.

 

What will we be doing on the seminar days?

Each school team is assigned to one weekday (Tuesday or Thursday) and one Saturday each month from October though April. See the calendar for the details. Everyone attends the Saturday seminars.

Each seminar weekday begins by 8:00 a.m. with a lite breakfast and overview at a central location. Your school liaison teacher helps you make arrangements to get to this site. (Some schools provide vans for the students)

Together we will travel by bus to explore the community, visit agencies, do community service, visit a prison, meet people who work with the issues that are crucial to our future, participate in simulations, lunch with the homeless, eat. The schedule depends on the topic of the month.

Lunch is usually a brown bag or is provided.

Students are returned to the central assembly site by 4:00 p.m.

Saturday seminars are from 9:00 a.m.- 3:00 p.m., similar format.

You will receive all of the program details each month, 2 weeds before the seminar.

In November, there is an overnight retreat (Friday all day though Saturday afternoon) No extra charge.

 

What are some of the topics?

The topics are related to the critical issues facing the St. Louis region and those skills and capacities needed by leaders to become community change agents.

Capacities (skills) include:

Team building, self-awareness, communication skills, building relationships, problem solving, conflict management, Community change, public decision making.

Topics may include:

Crime, poverty, economic development, cultural and racial harmony, regional government, health care, corporate responsibility, downtown revitalization, civic conversations with current identified leaders.

 

Is that all Focus St. Louis does?

Each year, YLSL offers special opportunities for its participants enhancing their experience, or providing opportunities though their senior year. These are optional; such as the opportunity to be selected to serve on an allocation panel of the United Way of Greater St. Louis during the senior year; be a member of a youth dialog group to look at eliminating racial polarization in St. Louis; being selected to serve as one of the two youth representatives on the FOCUS board. School teams are encouraged to implement a "team project" for their school or district such as teaching leadership to middle school children.

	For more information, contact Mrs. Brenda Mertes bmertes@highlandcusd5.org
Focus St. Louis' Regional Office

Clubs & Activities | HHS Home Updated August 12, 2009