At Risk Students Vs. Leaders

I'm frequently asked if our leadership training program is good for at risk students.  I think it's because people who work with at risk kids and teens are always looking for resources that help them help these students.  I applaud that.  But what this tells me is that there's a confusion about what leadership is for children and teens.  People in our culture seem to confuse leadership with other things, such as character, self-esteem, social skills, and performance.

Our leadership training resources are just that, about leading.  Being "at risk" is not on our radar.  I'm not trying to be insensitive, just clear.  A leader at risk would certainly benefit from the high calliber of training provided in our curricula and could possibly experience life transformation and avoid becoming a gang leader.  But a non-leader at risk isn't going to become a leader, merely by going through our training program.  We've noticed that those with an aptitude for leading are most apt to benefit from our concentrated curriculum.  Therefore, LeadNow and LeadWell offer dynamic training resources for leaders, at risk or not, but aren't designed to be generic social safety nets or disciplinary guardrails for those swerving on life's road.  I wish more people who work with at risk students would use our resources to identify the potential leaders and help them use their social influence constructively, such as creating positive peer pressure to help keep the other at risks students from running off the road.