Rotary Youth Leadership Award

This is a five day live in course that helps to build young people’s confidence, their ability to work in groups and also their ability to lead others in various activities. It helps to promote and instil leadership aims and values and is also an all-round character building experience for all those taking part. It aims to take young people out of their “comfort zones” by getting them to take part in various activities, absailing, canoeing, hiking, swimming, having various tasks to perform, building and constructing a special project which requires group input and also team leadership, these activities are often performed within the groups to encourage a competitive spirit for  all of the candidates. 

Rotary funds this experience for all of the candidates.

Successful candidates are awarded with a certificate which they can use in their educational portfolio, this can help for future job or college interviews.  Potential employers are always interested in applicants flexibility today and their external interests, not just their ability to be able to aspire to do a particular job.

During this presidential year we joined forces with Staines Rotary Club and the successful applicants were all invited to Knowle Green at Staines. The Presidents’of Ashford and Staines gave a brief talk to everyone present about Rotary and RYLA and the opportunities it gave to all the candidates who took part. The Mayor, Denise Saliagopoulos then presented the certificates to all the candidates. They were all asked to give a brief talk about their experience and  the time spent at High Ashstead. The feedback was very positive, they all felt that they had been given an opportunity to improve themselves, they had learnt a lot and had enjoyed mixing with people, in many cases that they had never met before. It had improved their confidence in themselves which was also endorsed by the parents present. Positive feedback is so important as ROTARY raises the money for the applicants to attend. It is always encouraging to the Rotarians to know that the monies raised by our efforts have gone towards a worth-while cause.

This was followed by a buffet where the candidates, their parents and other family members had an opportunity to speak to the Rotarians present about the course. The  positive feedback given by the candidates parents was also very encouraging, they all felt that their daughters or sons had returned with very much more confidence than before.

Rotary is committed to RYLA as part of the Youth opportunities programme.