՛՛Yes, I can: Leadership for teens՛՛ Program for adolescent girls in Armenia

Women's Resource Center, Armenia in collaboration with AIWA SF initiated a 3 month training program on leadership for adolescent girls in Armenia.

It has been a year, since we have started the implementation of the program and it does have a success!

Each session (with the duration of 1-1.5 hour) is divided into several stages: checking in on participants’ emotions and thoughts, an energizer, a core exercise combined with a theory, comments and questions, checking in on their emotional and mental status on the evaluation of the session.

The main methods of work are the following: Interactive group work, discussions, and brainstorming.

The following topics are raised in the program: The definition of the leadership and its diversity, personal perception of leadership, the emotional sphere of a leadership, what makes one a leader, the effects of one’s self-esteem on their personality, the importance of a vision, the value of constructive communication, the impact of diversity on leadership, the importance of creativity in leadership, the impact of personal values, horizon on leadership etc.

Here are some feedbacks of girls about our program and on the work we have been doing during the last months.

“Thanks to this seminar I received new knowledge about leadership, tried to wake up the concealed leader inside me. One of my biggest achievements of was learning how to work in a team by taking into consideration the opinions of all members of the team. It was very pleasant to work with Elvira and to ask her for a piece of advice. I have a great desire to continue having these seminars, as we spent a wonderful and unforgettable time outside the seminars as well.’’ Mane

‘’I have learned a lot during these meetings. We learned how to settle conflicts and how to build perspectives. I would like to continue because:

I liked Elvira a lot.

The sessions were very interesting.

I have made a lot of new friends.

And finally, I have spent a nice time.’’ Meri

“Thanks to these meetings we have gained a lot of new knowledge. For instance, we learned about the leadership, its types, good and bad attributes. I am very satisfied of this year's meetings. I would like these meetings to be continued, as we gain new knowledge and meet new people. We have had a lot of interesting and unique meetings. Also, many meetings were accompanied by games, and for all these we are very grateful to our leader - Elvira, for organizing the seminars in such an interesting and unique way.’’ Arpine

“Thanks to these interesting trainings, we learned how to develop and implement leadership skills, and to resolve conflicts without disputes. The training course also helped raise our self-esteem. We learned to be more confident and not be afraid of failures. All these skills will be useful not only for leadership but also during our whole life. Due to the trainings we learned how to make important decisions in short terms and to respect each other. Thanks to Elvira, these trainings passed more interesting each day. We would not like these meetings to be finished. We would really like these meetings to be continued in September as well.’’ Milena

“I learned how to become a leader in my community and how to resolve conflicts. I thought about the fact whether it is right to insist our opinion by hurting someone’s feelings and whether it is right to obey someone even if he is not able to lead the team properly. I learned how to work in a team, to take into consideration the opinions of others, to not interrupt while one is speaking, respect myself and be the one who will be respected by others, understand and love the person the way he or she is, and to not underestimate the person without knowing him or her. During these meetings I have learned so many new things that a day will not be enough to write about them. Many thanks to our trainer, our leader and a good person - Elvira. Thanks to her,

many things have positively changed in my life. I would like these trainings to be continued so that I will be able to further develop myself. Thanks!’’ Ann

As a trainer I find this program very essential for the empowerment of young women in Armenia. I would love to continue working with this target group as I believe reaching adolescent girls and empowering their inner strengths to take an active role in the society is the right way to advance women’s rights protection and gender equality, as well as to reach prosperity for the whole society in Armenia.

Elvira Meliksetyan

Program coordinator and trainer