Young And Compassionate Leaders

Students in Compassionate Leaders Program.

Are leaders born or created? It's an age-old question. The answer could come in the concept that some learning can certainly help. And when it comes to young people, teenagers, it can be quite useful to learn what goes into addressing social injustices and making a difference through giving back to the community.

That was the plea of middle school students who worked with Vlad Moskovski and Kate Janke, who were engaged in teaching meditation and mindfulness to them. Mindfulness helped these young people to realize that there were problems that needed to be addressed, but they lacked the skills to take their ideas from concept to reality.



Vlad and Kate took their own skills and educational backgrounds, gathered a group of interested adults with skills in other areas, and formed the COMPASSIONATE LEADERS PROGRAM. Originally focused on high school juniors, the program started as an eight-week after-school course that took students through the process of developing a local service project. Such practical issues as project management, budgeting, and communications, were taught, along with mindfulness meditation training. The end result was that each student had a functioning social service project.

From that beginning in 2013, the program has expanded.  A one-hour introduction course, Cultivating Emotional Intelligence, is available to educators and/or teenagers in the school setting. The focus is on developing empathic listening and mindfulness, key components of emotional intelligence. There is also a five-hour intensive course, The Colors Of Empathy, available to teens and/or adults. This course provides skills needed for more compassionate living. The Compassion in Action Program, forty hours in length, parallels the original program and is now open to those in grades 8 to 12. Its theoretical base is derived from design thinking methodology developed by Stanford University.

According to one student, who had completed the program, "It's a program that teaches you how to become a stronger leader and how to take risk on things you wouldn't want to do." The unstated benefit, evident in what this student took away from the program, is the confidence to put ideas into action.

Teens in program working with formerly incarcerated adults.

Thanks to this article from the Pollination Project: https://thepollinationproject.org/grants-awarded/vlad-moskovski-compassionate-leaders-program/; and the above link.

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