Since the program launched in February 2024, the 39 graduates of Southwest Montana Youth Partner’s (SWMYP) leadership initiative have logged more than 1,000 hours of change-focused instruction and designed and completed 17 community service projects.
“We want to try to reach more kids,” says SWMYP Executive Director Rochelle Hesford, adding that the organization’s Youth Leadership Program plans to welcome two new, and larger, cohorts next month, one each in Boulder and Whitehall.
The goal is to address what Hesford, an admitted leadership junkie, sees as a gap in traditional education: There’s little in school to build the leadership capacity of children in 7th, 8th and 9th grades, an age group she believes is primed to begin building a sense of personal agency and a commitment to civic engagement.
This will be the program’s third batch of would-be leaders. Selected on the basis of their applications and interviews, participants commit to 36 hours of leadership and project development instruction over six months — and to coming up with a service project of their own. The young people present their projects at a cohort-end celebration.
Earlier this year, three participants helped special needs residents at Helena’s Aspen Adult Services develop art projects. Whitehall High School students Oakley Buckner and Kortni Wilson noticed that there were no girls in their school’s weightlifting class — so they started their own, taught by a woman. Kalea Dill researched community-based mental health resources, sharing them with adults at the celebration.
Surveys of participants before and after their leadership experience showed that they had gained a better understanding of their strengths and areas for growth and become more confident speaking in front of groups and about finding ways to solve problems. They revealed improvement, Hesford says, across six key indicators.
“We’re actually able to teach hope,” she says. “It’s straightforward and easy. There are two components, agency and pathways and agency. The agency is about getting kids to see their future and to believe that they can do what they want to do. The pathways part is, here’s my goal, and I can break that into small steps and achieve it.”
SWMYP’s Youth Leadership Program was seeded by a $10,000 grant from the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation. Now, Hesford is seeking donations from businesses, organizations, and individuals, to cover program costs and a $200 honoraria for each kid who completes the training.
She’s also working with Connie McCauley, SWMYP vice president, to develop online curricula that leverages SWMYP’s expertise and experience to enable other communities to deploy the leadership program. “We keep asking ourselves,” says Hesford, “how do we reach more kids?”
Fifteen students will be selected for each of the new cohorts in Boulder and Whitehall. Students can apply at swmtyp.org.
