Toastmasters International
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Dr. Hans Peter Lütjen-Dageförde(not a XING member)Toastmastering as Community Service
Toastmastering as Community Service
A year ago the Hedgehog Toastmasters (Area C1) started a Youth Leadership Program (YLP) for 12th to 13th graders. The demand was so high that the eight-session course was run for 15 students in the fall and for another 15 in the spring of this year. Not only did this help to spread the Toastmasters message among teachers and young people alike, but it also motivated three of them to become Club members. This is why the VP Education is about to start another run.
As long as Toastmastering is done in English, the YLP will be attractive to high school students only, whose command of the language is good enough. This can be expected at the age of majority. As soon as the manuals have been translated into German and certified, it will be easier to address students at the age of 15 to 17. Schools in the north of Germany have already inquired.
The YLP is what you call community service, that is, it is one of the services that Toastmasters offer to benefit their communities. Another is the Speakers Bureau – to help other non-profit organizations and community and government groups tell their stories. And there are Gavel Clubs, which bring Toastmasters training to prisons, institutions for the handicapped and other institutions.
But back to our Youth Leadership: When the program was over, one of the youngsters recruited for the Hedgehogs YLP said: "It has improved my speaking skills and my leadership skills and it has boosted my feeling of self-confidence." So let us make our TM Clubs part and parcel of our communities – for the benefit of the communities and of Toastmasters!
- 30 Jan 2010, 08:06 am
