OELC believes that our youth can, and do make a difference – both today and tomorrow. We believe our role is to create a space that fosters curiosity, reflection and growth, and that provides students with opportunities to learn about themselves, others and their communities. And we achieve this through leadership courses that are purposefully designed, highly engaging and full of FUN!
While each leadership course is unique in how it accomplishes this, all of our courses and programs are developed around key goals.
These goals are as follows:
- Engage and educate youth so that they can return to their schools and communities ready and wanting to make a positive difference;
- Maximize the potential of emerging leaders towards becoming responsible and participating citizens in their schools and beyond;
- Provide youth with the opportunity to develop connections with other young community leaders across Ontario;
- Create a safe learning environment where the disposition and skills to dialogue across differences are nurtured, where diversity is welcomed, conflict is accepted and negotiated, and critical questions are encouraged;
- Allow participants to gain new insights, examine learned behaviours, challenge biases and become empowered agents of change; and
- Create opportunities for young people to imagine and generate other possibilities for themselves and the world around them based on democratic principles of social justice and equity.