Teaching leadership?

What’s the matter with kids today?
This is a question that has haunted parents in nearly every generation, as kids seem to lose touch with some important values of the past.
While a two-week program might not reverse this almost universal trend, Diane Richie, a one time drug prevention coordinator in the New York schools, hopes that Girls Unite, a summer peer leadership camp to be held in classrooms at Grace Lutheran Church from July 6 to 16, might serve as a good start.
Although Richie is a member of the church’s congregation, and requested to use several of the school rooms attached to the church for the program, she said the program is not religion-based. It is designed instead to provide girls ages 8 to 18 with some basic social skills that will enable them to succeed in modern society.

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“There are so many things girls don’t know today.” – Diane Richie
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“There are so many things girls don’t know today,” Richie said. “Many don’t know simple things like how to say ‘thank you,’ or ‘please.’ Sometimes they cut you off before you are finished speaking or reply with one or two words. It is a big world out there, and these girls need certain skills to be effective. Pre-teens like these need to learn how to be more assertive and not to be intimidated by their peers. They need to learn how to speak up for themselves.”
Students attending will be trained in leadership and violence prevention skills – which include communication, anger replacement, empathy, assertiveness, confrontation, problem solving, team building, and boundary setting. They will use, in some cases, role-playing techniques.
But this is a summer camp, after all, so it will also feature arts and crafts, board games, and exercise.
The program will operate from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Richie said many of the social skills that are considered essential for success aren’t being passed down to the next generation. Part of this camp is to begin a program that can be expanded later, perhaps to an afterschool program during the school year and a regularly scheduled two-week camp during the summer.
“We’re starting out small with only 20 girls,” she said. “But we wanted to start somewhere.”
She also said the program is starting late, and that many families have already made commitments to various other programs for the summer.
The program will have a parent orientation on June 30, which will talk about the program and what is required.
In order for a child to participate in the program, the parent must attend the orientation held at 7:30 p.m. at the Grace Lutheran Church, 37th Street and Avenue C. For more information, call Richie at (201) 779-3893.