The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is working with the National Youth Commission (NYC) and Youthlead Philippines to train Sangguniang Kabataan representatives to become more effective leaders.
The Pilipinas Bridging Understanding for Knowledge Links and Opportunities in Diversity (Pilipinas Buklod) is a program that equips youth leaders with the right skills and knowledge to produce programs or projects that help their communities.
The program revolves around four main topics: self-awareness, peer facilitation, conflict management, and transformation and leadership.
“We just want them to know how important their role is in the community as SK leaders. To do rhat, we have to enable them, we have to train them,” Youthlead Philippines founder Metodio Maraguinot Jr. said.
Maraguinot also added that it is essential to put them outside of their comfort zones, challenge them, and provoke them so that they would know how important their role is in the community.
Although there are a series of capability training workshops available to SK leaders, it is essential that they receive the right type of knowledge-transfer. They can buckle under societal and political pressure if they are not given correct training.
After the seminar and immersion, the SK representatives will be monitored by Youthlead Philippines to check if they were able to apply their learnings in their community.
Pilipinas Buklod is a seven-year long program, which aims to train more than 3,000 leaders nationwide. The group is hoping that through the program and the SK Reform Act, youth leaders would be empowered and they would become better leaders in their community.
