| National Youth Leadership Training Leadership Academy | |||
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| Owner | Boy Scouts of America | ||
| Country | United States | ||
| Founded | 2005 | ||
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| Website www.nylt-ysdc.org |
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The National Youth Leadership Training Leadership Academy (NYLT Leadership Academy or The Academy) is a program of the Northeast Region of the Boy Scouts of America that trains youth staff members for council level National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) courses. The course, formerly named the Youth Staff Development Course (YSDC) while located in New Jersey, has moved to its new home in Haymarket, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C. at the National Capitol Area Council Camp Snyder.[1] In the words of the NYLT Leadership Academy Vision:
The vision of the NYLT Leadership Academy is to instill each participant with the confidence, knowledge, and inspiration to deliver superior NYLT courses in every council; thereby reaching all troops and, in turn, impacting every Scout in the Northeast Region.
NYLT Leadership Academy is the new name for the Youth Staff Development Course (YSDC) previously held in New Jersey and replaces the National Junior Leader Instructor Camp (NJLIC) that was held at Philmont Scout Ranch.
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National Youth Leadership Training Leadership Academy is a pilot program of the Boy Scouts of America Northeast Region. It trains youth staff members for council level NYLT courses. This training program is an one of several programs available within the youth leadership training program.
National Junior Leader Instructor Camp (NJLIC) was a national level course at Philmont Scout Ranch that trained youth leader staff who would then provide leadership for Junior Leader Training courses at the council level. In 2006, NJLIC was discontinued and this pilot program was created. If this program proves successful, it will be made available to other regions. The first proram was held at Yard’s Creek Scout Reservation in Blairstown, New Jersey in 2006.
Prior to NJLIC, the original course designed to train staff for council leadership camps was held at Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation in Mendham, New Jersey. The Schiff program began in the 1960s, and was discontinued in the early 1970s. Thus, this program brings BSA leadership training full circle—this is symbolically represented in the program emblem. The shield is divided into a blue upper and a red lower region, as were the Schiff and NJLIC emblems. At the center of the shield are the points of a compass, representing NYLT, and within the compass is a fleur-de-lis, the universal symbol of scouting. In the center of the fleur-de-lis is a red tent on a green tulip tree leaf, the symbol of Schiff Scout Reservation. This program is a culmination of all previous Scout youth train-the-trainer programs.
NYLT Leadership Academy embodies Baden-Powell’s "Scouting is a game with a purpose" philosophy. The overarching purpose of YSDC is to develop quality youth staff for council NYLT courses by creating an environment that fosters learning and growth. It is a general maxim in the Scouting movement that Scouting provides a "special place;" meaning that Scouts, by following the Scout oath and law, create an environment that is open, accepting, and positive. At its inception the Youth Staff Development Course wholly embraced and broadened this concept to include elements of servant leadership, and equality of participants and staff at camp.
The preferred term for participants is participating staff, as all people at NYLT Leadership Academy are staff, if not at NYLT Leadership Academy then at their council NYLT. NYLT Leadership Academy is egalitarian,; any dichotomy of staff and participants is discouraged in the atmosphere and culture of the course. Out of this environment of equal footing for all, the concept of servant leadership naturally emerges. At YSDC, participating staff members are encouraged to be both leaders and servants. NYLT Leadership Academy intent is to make Robert K. Greenleaf’s statement, “A great leader is seen as servant first, and that simply is the key to his greatness.” come to life.