Youth Leadership Reno County

What is Youth Leadership Reno County?

A program that focuses on:

• Building relationships among students from the Reno County public school districts, Trinity Catholic Schools, and Central Christian Schools.
• Building effective communication, team building, and collaboration skills.
• Creating an understanding among the youth of the behaviors and skills necessary for community leadership as well as their role and citizen responsibilities in our culture today.
• Increasing the youth's voice in our community.
• Building stronger connections between our youth and the citizens of Reno County.

Who participates?

A total of 32 students participate in the annual class including two from 7th and two from 8th grade of each of the six public school districts in Reno County, Trinity Catholic Schools, and Central Christian Schools. The participants are selected by each school's administration.

Description of the Program:

Six sessions are held, each in a different Reno County community to provide the students with a broad experience and deeper understanding of all areas of Reno County. Each session consists of learning about a specific leadership skill, dialogue with community leaders on a specific segment of the community, and building on practical applications of what we're learning.  The Kansas Leadership Center principles and competencies provide direction for helping participants learn about leadership.

Partners in the Community:

This program of the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce is also supported by Communities that Care, the Hutchinson Recreation Commission and the schools that provide transportation for their respective students to the sessions.

Benefits of the Program:

The students work together on practices that benefit residents of Reno County. These practices serve as a learning laboratory for the students and give them the opportunity to apply the skills they are developing through the leadership class. Through this experience, our community will increase their recognition of our youth and their accomplishments. A long term goal of this program is that the Reno County youth will either continue to reside in this community after high school graduation or return to live in Reno County after post high school education and/or training.