YOU-LEAD: Youth Leadership, Emergency Action & Development
Lagos is a high-pressure, high-opportunity state. Young Lagosians (20–30) are simultaneously navigating unemployment/underemployment, rising living costs, rapid urbanisation, and service-delivery gaps across communities. At the same time, they are surrounded by constant public debate about governance—debate that often produces heat, cynicism, and disengagement rather than problem-solving and participation.
As Lagos approaches a defining season, the greatest asset the State can strengthen is not rhetoric—it is responsible citizenship capacity: people who understand that leadership is not a title, but a daily practice of responsibility; people who can respond safely in emergencies, engage institutions constructively, and mobilise community action around practical, local problems.
The Lateef Jakande Leadership Academy (LJLA) was created to build leadership capacity and values in young people. This is why YOU-LEAD was born. YOU-LEAD is designed as a simple, high-impact civic activation programme that equips young people with leadership orientation, a practical pathway to identify and solve real community problems as well as basic emergency awareness.
Objectives:
Provide immediate, tangible career tools through a structured CV & LinkedIn Clinic and career guidance.
Redefine active citizenship as responsibility, participation, and collaboration...not politics.
Provide participants with high-quality leadership learning through interactive fireside chats featuring credible practitioners, translating leadership from theory into practical behaviours and civic responsibility.
Enable participants to identify hyper-local community challenges and develop realistic 14-30 day quick-win action plans.
Build first-response confidence through sensitisation, practical demonstrations, and a CPR certification track for a selected cohort.
Generate structured community insights and solutions across divisions, documenting priorities for collaboration with relevant service-delivery structures.
Strengthen participants’ transferable skills-communication, teamwork, public speaking, interpersonal skills, emotional intelligence, collaborative initiative, problem-solving, and professional conduct-through practical, activity-based clinics that improve employability and civic effectiveness.
Core Idea (The "Soft Re-Engineering")
YOU LEAD is built to trigger a quiet but powerful shift in participants:
Target Group
- Young people aged 20–30
- Residents of the host Local Government
- Community volunteers, student leaders, informal leaders
Cohort Size: 50-100 participants
Expected Outcomes
By the end of the programme, participants should leave with measurable gains in:
- Stakeholder Identity: “I am a contributor to my community, not just a critic.”
- Civic Competence: Knowledge of constructive engagement channels and responsible participation.
- Emergency Readiness: Confidence and correct first-response actions; certified cohort trained.
- Employability Readiness: Improved CV, clearer articulation of value, next-step clarity.
- Action Capability: A realistic community quick-win plan and commitment timeline.
- Network Belonging: connection to a division-based cohort/community group for follow-up.
- Soft Skills Lab: Participants strengthen core soft skills needed for work and civic action, clearer communication (speaking and listening), better teamwork and collaboration under pressure, higher initiative and accountability (taking ownership of tasks), emotional intelligence, etc.
This is the programme’s “soft re-engineering”: practical capability plus a new self-concept of leadership.
Recognition & Visibility
Participants will receive certificates of participation, with special recognition for CPR-certified youth and outstanding community problem-solvers. Selected outcomes will be showcased on LJLA platforms and at flagship events such as the Lagos Leadership Summit.