Article by Warehouse hub

Within the framework of Project Result 2 (The Design of a Training Package to develop community-based leadership in youths) 7 Youth Local Labs (YLL) were implemented by young community leaders in Italy, Greece, Portugal, the Netherlands, and Slovenia as multi stakeholder workshops to tackle concrete local challenges.

These events (which will be described in Project Result 3) represented for youth leaders the occasion to test tools and methodologies from the training package, to put into action and train different traversal competencies (many of those identified in the CHLaYdoscope Competency profile for youth community leaders-Project result 1), and therefore, to create an effective framework for learning while solving real-world challenges.

YLL, where communities investigated local problems, came up with some creative solutions up to planning possible concrete actions, proved that 3 are the competencies that are needed for being an effective community leader, regardless of the complexity and specificity of the challenge. They can be summarized as follows:

Framing ideas/ Building Social Capital/ Mobilizing Resources:

• Frame ideas (transform ideas into action): the capacity to identify what needs to be done, how it is to be done, and why it is important to do;
• Build social capital: the capacity to develop (and maintain) relationships that allow people to work together;
• Generate and mobilize resources: the capacity to organize and engage critical stakeholders to take action to achieve specific outcomes;

Communities are diverse, ranging from neighborhoods, to schools, to organizations, to ethnicities and so much more. Regardless of all this diversity, it is important to reflect on the competencies leaders should gain and, on the role they should play in helping people to connect, exchange skills and generate ideas.

To know more about the Youth Local Lab and the Chlaydoscope Project Results click here to see our publications available in 5 languages.