Supporting Youth to Develop their Personal Leadership – How to Involve Children and Youth in Your Work

Section

The peer-learning journey “How to Involve Children and Youth in Your Work” is a series of online webinars organised by Philea’s Children and Youth Network throughout 2024 that aim to advance youth inclusion in the work of foundations by providing concrete pathways and tools to implement. Following each module, foundations that are willing to transform their way of working with young people can benefit from input from organisations with specific expertise on a given topic.

The fourth module explored “How to Support Youth to Develop their Personal Leadership” on 9 October with the King Baudouin Foundation and their Boost for Talents programme. Read on to discover the key points and recommendations from presenters and those involved in the project.

Aims and content

This module explored the comprehensive approach of Boost for Talents, a programme set up by the King Baudouin Foundation that operates in nine cities and accompanies 900 students across Belgium. During the module participants gained a better understanding on how such a programme can foster the academic and professional success of young people, develop essential personal and soft skills, and promote the importance of role models. It showed how young people can be empowered to take an active role in shaping their futures and to engage in civic activities that benefit their communities.

Learning topics covered

Creating opportunities for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds to access educational materials and realise their potential
Supporting young people in their self-development
Personalising the pathway to young people employment
Encourage young people to become role models

The model project

Boost for Talents supports talented and determined students with the ambition to maximise their chances of success in higher education and in entering the labour market. The programme emphasises both academic success and personal development, providing opportunities for self-discovery through activities like thematic workshops, inspirational meetings and language courses. Boost combines collective support, personal coaching, material and financial assistance, and networking opportunities. Additionally, Boost involves young people in its strategic committee and in the programme implementation, for example by including Boost alumni in the juries that select the newer cohorts for the programme.

Title	Boost for Talents
Country	Belgium
Year	2011-current
Mode of participation	Consultation- Collaboration- Leading
Age of young people involved	15-25

Point in philanthropic cycle

Boost for Talent involved young people at the following points in the philanthropic cycle:

Defining issues and priorities to be targeted by programmes
Taking action (implementation)
Reflecting on results (evaluation)
Sharing the learnings and following-up (dissemination, valorisation)

Recommendations based on this experience:

The presenters offered three recommendations based on their experience at Boost for Talents during its 13 years of existence:

Create an inclusive culture where young people can feel safe and appreciated to share their ideas and opinions. Indeed, these ideas are essential for our societies to face our current and future challenges.
Involve young people directly: Actively give them a place and a voice in important matters.
Develop mentoring programmes where young people can exchange with and learn from other, experienced young people and different stakeholders so that they can receive guidance, support and inspiration.

Excerpt from Module 4 Q&A

Your work touches on matters such as self and personality development, the foundations of which are typically developed during an earlier stage of life. Have you ever thought of a complementary or parallel project focusing on younger individuals that can be then combined at a later stage with your Boost Talents programme?

This is one of the many examples that show how important it is for a foundation to support a project long-term, to achieve real, systemic transformation. The King Baudouin Foundation has been very active around the topic of early childhood development for many years, and has, for example, supported together with public administrations, a large project that aims to train primary school teachers to work with children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The aim is indeed to have a more inclusive school system starting from the early ages, where inequalities already affect individuals lives and impact their futures.

In addition, we learnt that in one Belgian city, an organisation spontaneously started to work with younger people, during the two years before they become eligible for Boost Talents Programme, in order to support them in the preparation process for their application. In short, it would of course be ideal to follow the whole path from an early onset, but if you want to work on this matter you need to start somewhere. This is a quite expensive programme, but it is really impactful and effective.

Quotes

“Pierre Bourdieu, who worked on inequalities and power dynamics during his life, talks about how people that come from privileged background have three different capitals: economic capital, social capital and cultural capital. When I look at cultural capital, for example having parents that have bachelor’s degrees or master’s degrees that could help you in your homework or, inspire you to study further in life, I think that this is what Boost has been to me”. – Ma, “Booster“

“The dream goal would be that one day Boost for Talents will be led by ‘boosters’, and that we have coaches that are or have been ‘boosters’” – Yamina Krossa, Boost for Talents