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Leadership

Take control of your life and your community

Are you looking to make positive change in your life and your community?  If so, then The Door’s Leadership Development opportunities are for you.  The Door offers a range of opportunities to learn key leadership skills that will help you in school, work and everyday life.

Leadership Development Institute (LDI)

One of The Door’s main leadership programs, The Leadership Development Institute, or LDI, aims to create leadership development opportunities that raise awareness of political, social and economic issues affecting the quality of life of young people at The Door and beyond.  LDI can help you to:

  • Stay in school and pursue future educational opportunities
  • Gain self-confidence and self-esteem
  • Pursue avenues for self-discovery and self-expression
  • Make positive contributions to your community
  • Develop job skills
  • Understand the issues affecting your community and learn how you can make a difference

As a member of LDI, you will be involved in a combination of leadership trainings or “seminars” and work projects or “Learning Opportunities.”   Learning Opportunities are meant to:

  • Challenge you to practice core leadership values
  • Help you “teach back” what you’ve learned to your peers
  • Enable you to produce, create, or develop a sustainable project at The Door 

During the Summer 2009 session, LDI hosted learning opportunities like:

  • Bustin' Out – a theater troupe dedicated to using the life experiences of members to create performances that address contemporary social issues.  Bustin’ Out is also part of our Creative Arts programs.
  • Male Empowerment – using music, sports, movies and group discussion to give young men a chance to work with each other and explore their interests, strengths and responsibilities to themselves, their families and their communities. 
  • What’s Love Got to Do With It? – focusing on the causes, effects and consequences of teen dating violence/abuse and empowering young people to recognize warning signs of unhealthy relationships in support of their personal lives and that of their peers. 
  • Stuffed – Enjoyable and educational experiences that empower youth as nutrition educators.
  • Graphic design – Writers, artists, photographers and layout artists worked together to produce our summer yearbook.

In addition, LDI members participate in a series of community service activities inside and outside of The Door including “club time” - daily arts and recreational activities that are developed and facilitated by LDI members and are open to all Door members.  The goal of LDI is to help you become a leader both in your community, and here at The Door.  Graduates, alumni and advanced-level members work together to form the Youth Caucus, which serves as LDI’s governing body.  The Youth Caucus is involved in all aspects of shaping, monitoring, facilitating, recruiting and documenting the LDI experience. LDI is offered in the afternoons throughout the school year, and as a full-day program in the summer.

 

Opportunities throughout The Door

In addition to LDI, The Door offers the following leadership programs to young people who have a more specific focus in the change they would like to create:

  • FYPE (Foster Youth Peer Educators) – Young people involved in foster care who play a key role in educating and empowering other youth in care by presenting information sessions for foster youth at The Door, in group homes and at other organizations in New York City.
  • iPOWER (Immigrant People Organizing and Working for Empowerment and Rights) - A series of youth-led initiatives designed to educate and empower immigrants living in New York City.
  • PAUS (Peers Against Unsafe Sex) – For young people between the ages of 18-21 who want to become role models and sources of sexual health information in their communities by leading workshops in various middle- and high-schools and other organizations
  • TASI (Teens Against Sexual Ignorance) – Learn and teach others about sexual and reproductive health by leading interactive workshops throughout The Door.
  • The Council – A group of youth leaders in the Talent Search tutoring program dedicated to making positive changes within The Door and beyond through creative youth-led programming. 
  • This Way Ahead – This four-month program is for young people who are between 16 and 21 years old, currently in school and looking to gain job and leadership skills.

For more information about Leadership Opportunities, contact Monique De La Oz at 212-941-9090 x3263.