At Rotary, we’ve strived to serve the youth in our community for many years, and we feel now is the time more than ever to invest in our youth to become leaders in our community and world. As we reflect on our world today, we can understand how imperative it is for the younger generation to have the leadership skills to become the best version of themselves.
To achieve this end, the Rotary Club of San Francisco and the San Francisco Rotary Foundation provided $50,000 in seed funding to launch a year-round leadership program for high school youth in San Francisco, Marin, and San Mateo counties. The Action Leadership Program with Students (ALPS) was successfully launched in 2019 and has since developed a framework that adapts to the needs and resources of students all over the Bay Area.
Last year, we raised funds in downtown San Francisco at the renowned Salesforce Tower in support of the ALPS program, and we are looking to put on our second annual gala. The Fund the Future Benefit will be a virtual gala held on Thursday evening, February 4, 2021, and all proceeds will go to help expand the ALPS mission to empower youth with the confidence and tools to successfully lead change projects in their schools, communities, and world. ALPS programs prepare youth to be ‘service above self’ leaders for healthy communities and a civil society.
ALPS programs are grounded in The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership, a leadership framework based on more than three decades of leadership development research and practice pioneered by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner and their best-selling book The Leadership Challenge. Through youth-generated service projects and leadership coaching from trained adults, participants experience hands-on leadership, build communication and problem-solving skills, and create a positive impact in an area of their interest. Flexible project planning and coaching sessions allow ALPS participants and leadership coaches to adapt to a dynamic environment, all while building trust, clarifying values, fostering teamwork, improving self-confidence and interpersonal skills, becoming organized, practicing presentation skills, and tackling a community project.
With an award-winning trusted curriculum, Rotary backing and reach, and support from corporations, foundations, and individuals, ALPS has the potential to become the premier program of leadership development at the high school level in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond!
Please join us in supporting this important work. With you by our side, along with other community partners, we are better together in building the leadership capacity in our community.