Laura Russell, a Young Advisor from Hull and also a young Trustee to the Charity has recently attended a seven day International Youth Leadership seminar in Denmark. The seminar was intended to strengthen the social and intercultural competencies participants need to lead a manifold group. The knowledge and tools she learnt at the seminar gave her experience relevant to her work as a Young Advisor and as a young Trustee.

The first workshop we did was Good Leadership. The trainers went through the 6 leadership skills. Philosopher, Activist, Captain, Talk Show Host, Gardener and Diplomat. We looked at good and bad leadership and how good leaders can be bad people i.e. Adolf Hitler.

The next workshop was back in the family rooms and we started planning leadership. We looked at the 5 stages of planning and the SWOT analysis. We looked at the leader sessions and what skills we would be using when leading. The last workshop of the day was Building groups.

The five stages are:
Forming- Group gathers and gains impressions.
Storming- Brainstorming and Power struggles.
Norming- Come together and problems solved.
Performing- Objectives met and loyalty.
Adjourning/Mourning- Breaking up of the group.

The third day was The motivation workshop. We covered the 4 Motivational factors in a project: Starting a Project, Creating ownership, Seeing a purpose, Achievements, Being recognised and then reaching the Goal. The communication workshop was next and we had to devise a speech. I chose the subject of Pride and Prejudice and my Fan-Fiction story Hannel.

It was good to listen to the other speeches as well as give my own and get advice on my own speech making. All of the advice went into my memory and adapt my presentation skills I learnt in my initial training. I got good feedback and I knew that I would have to do at least one more presentation or public speaking while I was there. I picked up some tips and enhanced the skills I had learnt before in the Young Advisors training and what I had picked up from my Drama teachers.

After lunch it was the Leader Session where participants had to pair up and lead a session to the other members of the group. The topics of the sessions were Stereotypes and Global Citizenship. It was interesting to observe the others in a working environment and see what they were like leading.

The night’s Action Café was where we got to shout about our projects. Laurin and Corina talked about Euphoria in Switzerland, Ahmed talked about his project in Palestine and Elena about her project in Russia. All of which I would love to be involved in. They bring young people together and give them a sense of purpose. Euphoria seemed to be a mix between Young Advisors AGM and a BYC National Convention. Ahmed’s project got people talking and communicating in the media in a very dangerous area of the world. Elena’s project was again like the Young Advisors AGM but mixed in with a summer camp.

The next day it was the Leader Session and it was my turn to lead. I got really good feedback and the notes on my performance were generally positive. We then did a session on Group Dynamics and Conflict Management. I was asked to facilitate the workshop on Group Dynamics. I had to get the group to decide where the descriptions of the Forming-Adjourning model went. I did some quick maths and split the group into twos so they could discuss the statements. We then had a discussion on where they went but I ran out of time. It went well and I got some good feedback. I’d do it again.
In the Conflict Management workshop we did one of my favourite activities Forum Theatre.

The next day we saw the other projects and did the final leader session after a strange energizer. Watching a really old exercise video on Youtube and then doing the exercises. It was quite funny. The final leader session was evaluation. We felt that the project went well but we could have done with more time. We then had to clean the family rooms. It was the end of an era.

Next up was Action Café and I did my presentation on Young Advisors showing two videos and the photos from the AGM. I showed them the Trustees page of the website. I really enjoyed presenting and getting my project out there.

If anyone is interested there is another ILTS course in October 2012 and I would recommend it to everyone. It was the best course I have ever done. There is so much to learn and do. Copenhagen is an amazing city despite it being expensive.