“Young People Develop ‘Skills to Last a Lifetime’ at the CCYAA Leadership Development Program, sponsored by the Toronto Police Services Community Mobilization Unit & Chief’s Youth Advisory Committee”

Written by:  Jin Dai, CCYAA Leadership Development Program Executive Director
 

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other” – John F. Kennedy

Through the vehicle of an innovative and youth-tailored leadership development program, approximately 20 high school and university students engaged in interactive learning over the weekend of November 14th and 15th at the Metro Toronto Police Headquarters to develop their communications, leadership and life skills. 

The event was organized by the Chinese Canadian Youth Athletics Association (CCYAA) in partnership with the Toronto Police Service Community Mobilization Unit (CMU), and the Chief’s Youth Advisory Committee (CYAC).  The seminar brought together the youth with successful and inspirational mentors and guest speakers, and lessons were reinforced through a combination of presentations and interactive team activities.  The diversity and range of speakers provided a colourful backdrop to help the youth develop and gain a deeper perspective on how leadership principles apply across different environments. 

Key speakers included Graham Herbert – a leadership and organizational change executive, Inspector Peter Yuen from Police Services, Jama Mahlalela – a Raptors coaching intern who also started a youth empowerment basketball program in Swaziland, Ray Cao – a young serial entrepreneur, John Ki – a rising Canadian-Korean standup comedian, Tanya Callaghan – a prominent varsity all-star basketball coach, Staff Sargeant Michael Matic – the Toronto Police CMU and CYAC Lead, David-Paul Sip – the current President of New Horizons Toastmasters in North York, and Gerald Chan – a criminal defense lawyer and rap artist.   

Throughout the seminar, the youth gained valuable lessons in understanding their own behaviours and communication styles and appreciating the difference of others, which enabled them to tailor their communications to be more effective in school, social and work settings.  They also learned to effectively set actionable goals to keep them accountable, manage and resolve conflicts, foster teamwork, plan events, and translate their passions for community development into actionable plans.  With activities from building sky scrapers out of straws, to solving a complex bank robbery problem to developing a creative media pitch to TV executives, the students not only gained valuable team, leadership and communication skills, but had a fun and action-packed weekend with other proactive youth.

This event would not have been made possible without the hard work, dedication, energy and support from an integrated team of CCYAA volunteers, the Toronto Police CMU and CYAC leaders and committee members, distinguished guest speakers and volunteer parents.  The feedback from the youth has been no less than stellar, with many participants citing the value and interactive format of the learning modules, punctuated by “unique and appealing” guest speakers.  Another youth noted her enjoyment and appreciation of the event, and the “reason for this was because of the variety of speakers, not only the topic they talked about but how they presented their topics…an interesting point to note is the effort of the staff and volunteers that helped make the leadership conference possible.  This is to say that everyone who took time and effort to be able to organize this event did a phenomenal job”.

Many opportunities exist to further grow this event to larger audiences, as this was the inaugural year.  From the feedback, there is showing to be a strong demand for the conference, with opportunities to enhance and tailor it to different audiences.  One student mentioned “I wish that they could come to my school and do the same leadership conference.”