The Black Youth Leadership Development Institute Is…

A group of young black people, teachers, community educators, parents, various professionals and regular citizens committed to redirecting the talent and energy of black youth into positive growth and development.

The purpose of the Institute is to train, mentor and cultivate young Black leaders committed to social change in all areas of life. Our work focuses on creating change and development models for transforming African American youth — replicable models for community centers, groups, schools and faith-based organizations. Each program, activity, and resource is designed to foster within Black youth a worldview that links their reality of poverty, illiteracy, involvement in drug use and trafficking, and violence to the lack of access to the nation’s resources and positive channels.

The Black Youth Leadership Development Institute’s (BYLDI) mission is to reconnect African American youth to their legacy as change agents who are able to facilitate their own transformation and that of their communities and nation. Our primary objective is to implement an effective training program that builds capacity and relevant skills, and innovative and culturally competent models to develop confident, capable and civic-minded youth leaders for the future. Competent leadership that includes a proclivity towards economic and political empowerment, peace with justice, and new domestic and foreign policies is critical and central to social change. We see this as an investment in youth and understand that this work is long-term and from experience often arduous, but through a unified effort, we can be successful.

Goals

• To train young people for the struggle for greater environmental, economic and social justice and equality.
• To inspire Southern Black Youth with a new sense of dignity and self-worth.
• To provide trained youth to work for the protection of the environment and to address environmental problems faced at the local and global levels.
• To put Black youth to work through training and entrepreneurial endeavors.

Objectives

• To teach skills associated with developing safe, clean, healthy and sustainable communities
• To develop a curriculum to enhance the self-image of African American children
• To use culture and history to de-program negative images
• To re-teach the concept and value of self-help

Young people who have graduated from the Institute are at the helm of shaping the work of The Institute and all its activities. Our mission has evolved through the toil of the youth who are committed to improving the lives of their people. Over 1,000 young people have had a hand in the development of The Institute and continue to serve in ways that promote preservation and legacy building. Harambee – “Let’s Pull Together” to continuously “Raise Up” new leaders dedicated to building a better world.

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