A Youth Leadership Camp for ages 9 to 13 will run for four weeks this summer through the Weyburn Branch of the Canadian Mental Health Association.

Program Director Tasha Collins said they have run this program four times throughout the past school year.

"We've condensed it down into four Fridays, so it'll be July 15th, July 22nd, 29th and then August 5th, and the youth will come either for three hours in the morning or three hours in the afternoon," she explained. 

Program Facilitator Heidi Vogel said it's all based on leadership skills with a wide range of topics, including, "our identity, communication, problem solving, connection resilience, responsibility, self awareness, and then the last day is like our party day, which is where we like recognize all the skills that they've worked on." 

"The premise behind the youth program is to teach some of those mental health and resilience skills without actually sitting down and being in a classroom and learning about stress in a classroom setting," noted Collins. "You are learning about how to manage stress by maybe doing a balloon activity where we're throwing balloons up in the air and seeing how how easy it is to juggle one or two balloons as compared to juggling 15 balloons. And that being you know the balloons representing different types of stress we see."

"Kids just learn better with like engaging hands on activities," Vogel stated. "So it's not like we're sitting down writing. I mean, we do worksheets for sure, but the majority of the activities I chose are for that purpose, that they're up and moving around, because kids are generally more engaged in those environments and just sitting down and working on paper, especially over the summer, I don't feel like that anyone going to be interested in that."

They said each session will have openings for eight youth.

"That's just a really good number, we found, with the the pilot projects when we did it," Collins noted. "It's a good ratio between Heidi and and the youth, and they get a really good sense of connection through the that group as well, so they get to build relationships and get to know other kids in the community, so it's been really great so far."

Collins said the goal of this is, "not necessarily to learn all of the leadership skills and become like the super-massive leader". 

"What it is, is to recognize the strengths that they already have and maybe build upon those and pull them out maybe a little bit for them, so it's not like this strict program where you're learning about like the ABCs with mental health. It is really about having fun and being engaged, and recognizing that you already have skills and you can build upon them."

"The registration deadline is July 5th and so if you have somebody that is interested in the program, it's for all youth ages 9 to 13," she invited. "There are some exceptions that apply, certainly we have had one that was a little bit younger, but fit right into the group. So I mean we can make some exceptions."

There is no fee for the program, and parents can register by calling the Canadian Mental Health Association's Weyburn Branch at 306-842-7959 or email tashac@cmhask.com.