In­ter­na­tion­al Youth Day was ob­served on Au­gust 12. The en­er­gy and tal­ent of the youth of our coun­try is un­matched. Unit­ed Na­tions Sec­re­tary-Gen­er­al An­to­nio Guter­res, said, “On this im­por­tant day, let’s join hands across gen­er­a­tions to break down bar­ri­ers and work as one to achieve a more eq­ui­table, just and in­clu­sive world for all peo­ple.” The day aims to high­light the is­sues faced by the youth in day-to-day life. It al­so rais­es aware­ness about “cer­tain bar­ri­ers to in­ter­gen­er­a­tional sol­i­dar­i­ty, no­tably ageism, which im­pacts young and old per­sons.”

Many per­sons and or­ga­ni­za­tions heed­ed this call to ac­tion and com­mem­o­rat­ed this sig­nif­i­cant day with co­or­di­nat­ed events that fo­cused on har­ness­ing the strength of our youth and their po­ten­tial with­in. One such trail­blaz­er, Jamie Chai­tan, pas­sion­ate about mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the lives of kids and ado­les­cents, host­ed their an­nu­al Kids Coach­ing Camp - IG­NITE.

“The team and I knew com­ing out of the many COVID-19 re­stric­tions, this op­por­tu­ni­ty would be ide­al for us to share our love and add a lit­tle val­ue to each of the kids that would par­tic­i­pate. Our vi­sion was sim­ple, we want­ed each child to know that the light that’s in­side of them is what can make a dif­fer­ence in our world,” shared Jamie, a John Maxwell Lead­er­ship Coach.

Fo­cus on Self-care

“I firm­ly be­lieve that ex­po­sure to Per­son­al De­vel­op­ment from an ear­ly age is ab­solute­ly nec­es­sary and vi­tal to our younger gen­er­a­tions if they are to grow in­to per­sons of sig­nif­i­cance. As our theme sug­gests, ig­nit­ing the hearts of the young ones was the most ex­cite­ment we had since our last lock­down. Ac­tiv­i­ties in­clud­ed per­son­al state­ments, Self-care and con­fi­dence build­ing af­fir­ma­tions, grat­i­tude jars and time man­age­ment work­shops all added to the agen­da, as we made this year, one to re­mem­ber. The kids who start­ed as com­plete strangers be­came friends in the end. The bond they formed, the way they helped and looked out for each oth­er was sim­ply beau­ti­ful.”

Build­ing Ca­pac­i­ty and

In­ten­tion­al Growth

“As a cer­ti­fied Maxwell Lead­er­ship Coach, one of lessons that has stood with me since I be­gan was one of in­ten­tion­al growth. John Maxwell taught us that val­ues and strengths are great ar­eas to be­gin our per­son­al growth jour­neys. By in­ten­tion­al­ly sow­ing growth, you are em­brac­ing a val­ue that will al­low you to have an un­lim­it­ed fu­ture.”

“Our youth is en­er­getic, hope­ful, fear­less and de­ter­mined. They are the fu­ture of our coun­try, and we must heed the call to strength­en their re­solve and build their ca­pac­i­ty. The on­ly guar­an­tee of to­mor­row get­ting bet­ter is you choos­ing to grow to­day. This les­son along with many oth­ers is what has pro­pelled me to serve our younger gen­er­a­tion. My goal con­tin­ues to be one where an av­enue for per­son­al growth and de­vel­op­ment is read­i­ly ac­ces­si­ble to our na­tion’s chil­dren.”