KidLead Insights

I'm speaking at CADA this week, California Association of Directors of Activities ( www.cada1.org ). CADA is the largest organization of its kind, a network of people who oversee student government, leadership trianing, and the like.  In one of my workshops, I talked about how to identify students with leadership aptitude, since approx. 50% of student governments consist of students who are popular, but not leaders. One thing I said was, "It's not about programs or events, it's about developing young leaders."  A man came up to me afterward and said, "I've been trying to say that to my peers for 25 years, it's about developing the student."  A lot of school activities directors focus on the planning of homecoming, yearbook, and whatever other events they're charged to "do," but they often overlook what's best for the student.  I love LeadWell training curriculum for teens, because it unleashes them to "do" by helping

CDC stands for Centers for Disease Control.  Recently I met with the person in charge of anti-bullying at CDC.  Those of us in the USA think of the CDC in terms of infectious diseases, news reports on flu outbreaks, and other epidemic health info.  But low and behold they have an office dealing with bullying, because it's considered a health hazard. My meeting had to do with our findings that student leadership development abates bullying and other negative social behaviors.  We're also talking to ChildFund because they're engaged in this issue globally.  While most bullying programs are about adults telling kids not to pick on each other, the Trojan Horse solution is to identify the social influencers, teach them how to lead positively, and then equip them with anti-bullying tools and ideas.  Seems a no-brainer solution since we're merely tapping a natural process, proactively.  Here's a whiteboard video we produced on the topic.  Click HERE .

On Saturday morning December 22, 2012, a group of KidLeaders were busy organizing children’s pajamas at the Learning and Loving Education Center (LLEC) in Morgan Hill. The LLEC serves adult immigrant women and their children living in the surrounding low and extremely low-income areas of the community by providing English and computer classes, a daycare and preschool. KidLeaders decided to collect children’s pajamas to give away to the LLEC families for the holidays. At the beginning of December, the KidLeaders had placed collection boxes at their schools, the city’s Recreation Center and the local TJ Maxx. Kidleaders collected 160 pairs of pajamas. The group organized a Pajama Room where the mothers of the families would go to pick out pajamas after they had chosen toys for their children. Over 100 families picked up pajamas that day, with KidLeaders helping the mothers choose pajamas in the size and design that they wanted. Steve Tate, the mayor of Morgan Hill, served as a Ko