Legacy’s approach to youth leadership development allows for all types of styles and skill levels.  For us, leadership is based upon the ability to respond to the time, place, and circumstances one finds oneself in.  The Global Youth Village environment encourages an attitude, an identity, a set of new skills and understandings that allow leadership to emerge from individuals.

Young people see the source of leadership coming from within rather than solely on public acknowledgment.  It becomes solidified, based on the confidence of “this is what I am” rather than upon the effort of “this is what I am trying to be.”  Our primary teaching method is experiential in a highly supportive environment.  In all aspects of GYV - workshops, action teams and cabin life individuals are given opportunities. Young people are encouraged to try new things and develop teamwork skills.

Young people return home from GYV with:

• Improved self-confidence, maturity; a positive outlook on life; renewed hope for the future
• Heightened commitment to active participation in the future of their communities
• Increased understanding of various cultures, global issues, and their interconnectedness
• Reinforced ability to respect people as individuals with unique strengths and weakness rather than to stereotype individuals by ethnic, national, racial or cultural prejudices and biases
• Increasedself-discipline in setting, working towards, and achieving group and individual objectives
• Strengthened ability to organize and carry out community improvement projects successfully
• Enhanced ability to promote understanding among people
• Improved ability to find win-win solutions to interpersonal disputes and disagreements
• Acquired new perspectives on their own day-to-day dynamics.