Building local youth leadership

Since the early days at Skateistan, young volunteers have played an important role in delivering and shaping programs. Initially, that was simply out of necessity, as we didn’t have many skateboarders on staff – as local kids got better at skateboarding, they started to take on the roles of skate educators to show younger students how it’s done. But this necessity quickly became a strength.

We believe it’s better to give opportunities to local young people, rather than international volunteers. They understand the needs of their community better and they interact more easily and comfortably with younger students from the same community.

Most importantly, we want our programs to be relevant. Having local youth closely involved in shaping and delivering programs means we can keep adapting to the needs and aims of our students. So what does this look like? 

Skateistan’s Youth Leadership program

We have a specific program that is intended to benefit youth (12-17), as well as providing a way for them to influence the way our programs are run. Motivated students can apply to join the Youth Leadership program to become more involved in developing our community at Skateistan. 

Students complete a number of ‘milestones’ which help them to track their progress. These include topics such as career planning or media training, as well as areas which are more directly involved in helping with Skateistan programs, such as the ‘Safety Leader’ milestone. Completion of this milestone, which covers child protection, first aid, coaching skills and safety in the skatepark, enables Youth Leaders to begin helping out with classes, both in the skatepark and the classroom. 

Youth Leaders also have the chance to become leaders by taking part in Skateistan’s Student Council, which is a key vehicle for decision making at the Skate School. Students can make recommendations for lesson plans and additional activities that they would like to see as part of their programming. Representatives are elected by their classes, having run campaigns to communicate their priorities. This is also a way of helping students to understand democratic processes. 

Once students complete their milestones, they can graduate from the program which provides a meaningful sense of completion. Occasionally, there are opportunities for graduating Youth Leaders to take on roles at the Skate School, either as volunteers or as paid members of staff. While this is not the main aim of the program, we are proud that we largely recruit from our own student body and therefore continue to support long-term community development. 

Additional programs for Youth Leaders

Girls’ and women’s empowerment is at the heart of what we do and we also run additional youth leadership milestones for girls. This Girl Can and Global Girl Project allow girls to explore issues which are important to them, such as body image, equal rights and gender discrimination. The girls devise community projects and events which tackle these issues. These projects help them to develop their leadership skills as well as creating strong bonds of friendship between the girls themselves. 

Junior Coaches

In South Africa we recently started a pilot for our alumni Youth Leadership students who have graduated from Skateistan, called Junior Coaches. This gives students the opportunity to return to the Skate School and empower others through their own experiences while gaining paid work experience and developing their career and education path.