Cook Inlet Tribal Council's Educational Services Department is pleased and proud to be one of the recipients of this year's annual CIRI Golf Classic proceeds. The donated funds will be used to enhance CITC's Native Youth Leadership Program. The Native Youth Leadership Program seeks to help young leaders guide wisely to promote self-determination for all ages.

CITC Education Program

In administering the Youth Opportunity Program for the past two years, the Tribal Council has learned to tap into the positive power of youth-to-youth influence through the development of youth councils in 41 Alaska Native villages statewide, including Tyonek in the Cook Inlet region. Similarly, according to United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc. (UNITY), Native American youth are making great strides in leadership development through youth councils.

Youth councils are local groups of Native American youth ages 15 to 24 who come together to learn leadership skills and to help others in their communities, tribes, or villages. They learn how to organize and conduct meetings, use parliamentary procedure, plan events or programs, coordinate community service projects, and work with community, tribal or village leaders.

Cook Inlet Tribal Council's vision is to replicate the highly successful youth development center model within all the interested villages throughout the region, with a central council that will serve to inform Cook Inlet Tribal Council and its education programs. A second goal is to involve youth in the creation and implementation of quarterly one-day conferences centered on a theme such as cultural history or employment workshops, and perhaps hosted by each site represented on a rotating basis. Cook Inlet Tribal Council is striving for a broader and deeper impact than a single three-day youth leadership conference has provided in the past.

Through these youth councils Cook Inlet Tribal Council has the potential to touch the life of nearly every other young person in the region. Developing an engaged youth develops an engaged community, and these youth will be more likely to be ready to take their rightful places as tomorrow's leaders.

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