Youth Shoulder 2 Shoulder is dedicated and passionate about cultivating and facilitating an environment in which teens grow as people through serving others. Service gives our teens purpose, promotes synergy, and helps to build the 5 Essential Attributes (see “Learn More”) in our members. Our goal is to become a club at schools internationally and be an avowed program for building character in the leaders of tomorrow.
COVID-19 Response: Due to the hardships and dejection many people are facing during these trying times, YouthS2S is needed more urgently than ever. Our members are working to be a light amidst all the darkness and spread joy and hope within their communities even while YouthS2S is not meeting. If you are looking for ways you can help, click the “Take Action” page.
The 5 Essential Attributes:
Growing and maturing into emotionally intelligent and confident leaders is often not easy for teens to learn and authorities to teach. YouthS2S has come up with 5 essential attributes that every teen needs in order to become the best version of themselves and help build the future this world needs. The attributes are:
- Grit
- Charisma
- Empathy
- Gratitude
- Wisdom
Serving others is a major contributor to developing these characteristics, but we want to take these attributes from an occasional theory to an ingrained habit, so once a month we will have a meeting surrounding one of the attributes where we will encourage and inspire each other through activities and discussions that will be enjoyable and valuable to our teenage members.
Why these Attributes?
Characteristics like charisma, grit, and wisdom are rarely the subject of youth leadership programs, but they certainly should be! Vague terms such as leadership and kindness have lost meaning with every use and can alienate younger audiences, but our more oriented attributes allow for specific goals, greater interest, and more emotional intelligence.
Grit
Grit is essential to build a strong and resilient mindset. By serving others, members of S2S will be challenged, have leadership roles, and have to step out of their comfort zone. In doing so, they will develop a new strength of character.
Charisma
Charismatic people can devote, charm, and captivate whoever they come in contact with. With the combination of charisma and integrity, leadership will come easily to our members. Teens often struggle in situations with high social pressure. By serving others, they will work with people, have an improved mood, and learn to be their authentic selves no matter what. In discussions, we will talk about what makes a person charismatic and practice applying those tools to our everyday interactions.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to not only understand, but also share the feelings of someone else. Empathetic people have higher emotional intelligence and can foster trust, personal growth, and creativity as well as helping understand how to respond to sometimes uncomfortable situations. Service will allow our members to walk in other’s shoes, step out of their comfort zone, and receive real-time feedback which will lead to heightened empathy.
Gratitude
Positivity and happiness is something every young person requires for proper development and personal growth. Gratitude is the key to happiness and can help in dealing with adversity and even improving health. Serving others allows members to be reminded of all their blessings, especially when faced with people who don’t have as much as they do. Sometimes just stating what we are grateful for lacks emotional impact. However, truly seeing and perceiving what life can be like for those who don’t have as much as we do will increase our gratitude and desire to help others.
Wisdom
To be wise is to have experience, knowledge, and good judgement. Pressure and lack of experience lead many teens to make decisions that are harmful to their lives and character. We will have discussions and activities surrounding the use of good judgement. Service helps with wisdom because it gives members experience and self awareness. It also allows members to think of others first, which puts things into perspective.