Leaders of Tomorrow

Changemaker: Giovani Rocha

The (LdA) Leaders of Tomorrow Project (Líderes do Amanhã, in Portuguese) equips promising teenagers from public schools of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with social tools that will enable them to strengthen their role as young leaders, successfully conduct the course of their own professional and personal trajectories and generate change in their communities through the implementation of Community Action Projects. These projecs will mainly embrace four of the most pressing issues faced by the young generation in Brazil; (i) teenage pregnancy, (ii) unequal access to higher education, (iii) fight against drugs, and (iv) religious, cultural, sexual and racial intolerance.

In January of 2013, the LdAs met at the first-ever “Leadership for Tomorrow Conference”, event that will take place in Rio de Janeiro. Part of the conference will focus on building in these thirty young leaders a solid leadership profile through sessions led by mentors and based on the best-seller “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens”. The mentors of the program – young college students with proved interest in bringing about change in their communities – will also support the participants throughout the whole envisioning, planning and executing of the five small Community Action Projects that will ultimately impact over 500 teenagers in the city of Rio. In addition to it, participants will engage in workshops, debates, exhibition of documentaries and a visit to a social organization. Ultimately, the program will provide a full leadership and social entrepreneurship training that will take the participants of the program to a greater understanding of the role they play as agents of change in their communities. As a result, the program gives a single opportunity to promising youngsters from underprivileged backgrounds to expand their horizons, partake of a unique network of young activists and contribute to the dissemination of values and lessons that are undoubtedly shared amongst those who will inevitably play the role of the great leaders of tomorrow.