Many of the community organizations lack effective leadership as a part of their program. Our advisory councils, schools, and county/city leadership indicated there is a need for more youth leadership development programs. It is vital to instill the values of volunteerism and strong leadership in our young people. Strong leaders are vital to the future of our communities, government, and organizations.

The Adair County Cooperative Extension Service sponsored a Teen Leadership program for middle school and high school age youth. The purpose of the Teen Leadership programs is to provide teens the opportunity to learn more about their community and its development, to provide a forum for networking, to help develop strong leadership skills, and to foster a desire to serve others.
35 high school and 20 Middle school teens learned to develop their leadership skills and developed a community service project. The youth attend all-day leadership meetings once a month to learn leadership skills and to develop their community service project.

A survey shows that 96% of the youth participating learned at least two new things related to leadership. 99 percent stated that they would like to continue in the program next year and 95 percent said that the program has helped make them better leaders in their school and community.