The mission of Youth Leadership Tomorrow is to provide community education and leadership development training to high school students through experiential learning activities that connect youth to their community and inspire them to be problem solvers, decision makers, and future leaders in our community.

Hall County Leadership Unlimited, Inc. started an adult leadership program in 1986 called Leadership Tomorrow. This program quickly became an integral part of community and business leadership development efforts. As the adult leadership program continued to grow over the next decade, local needs assessments were conducted by entities such as the Heartland United Way, Heartland Vision and Partners for Healthy Communities. Although these assessments measured many community factors, particular needs emerged in regard to local youth.

About the same time, the Nebraska Department of Finance and Support released a Central Service Area Profile, which included Hall County statistics that highlighted many risk factors for our youth. In 1999, a community meeting was held with representatives from government, businesses and non-profits. This group determined that Leadership Tomorrow would be the right organization to develop a youth leadership program which was later developed and named Youth Leadership Tomorrow.

Youth that are given the opportunity to learn about the history of their community have higher levels of pride and ownership in their community, are more connected to their hometown and are more like to be involved community members. Additionally, the more connected youth are to their community, the higher their academic performance is and the more likely they are to return to/be involved in their community after their education is complete. Academic achievement levels in any community contribute significantly to the businesses they are able to attract, the skill of the workforce, and the output of local companies. The success of our youth is not only an indicator of the quality of life of kids and families, but also in the quality of life in our community.

Youth that apply to the program must be attending one of the 7 high schools in Hall County and must currently be in their junior year. Applications are reviewed through a blind process (committee does not see the name of the student when scoring their application) by a committee. The committee is comprised of members of the Youth Leadership Tomorrow Board of Directors and representatives from each school.

Program Format:

• 25-30 youth participants are selected
• Youth attend one full-day session each month from January 2012 through August 2012 with a graduation ceremony in September 2012
• Youth will interact with various community leaders and the Leadership Tomorrow Board of Directors
• Youth will complete a class community project
• After graduation, 2 youth are selected each year to be board members on the Leadership Tomorrow Board of Directors.
• Graduates of the program are eligible to apply for a college scholarship their senior year.