Eric James offers three workshop sessions for youth events. He works closely with youth event planners to make sure that his message fits their program, has a simple yet powerful message that “sticks” in the minds of youth, positively affects their behavior and creates educational and entertaining experiences. Eric’s workshops help youth move to the next level of thinking.
Workshop 1: Leading by Example
Workshop Overview: Leading by Example is designed to educate, train and provide experiences that enhance leadership skills. Its curriculum informs and stimulates leaders to solve the significant needs of the area and motivates participants to help make a difference in the community and instill that desire in others.
Encouraging leadership is critical to the success of any community. Eric James helps participants realize the positive impact they can have and provides them with skills and information to become more than just a product of their environment, it allows them to have a CHOICE!
Objectives:
- Help youth learn specific knowledge and skills related to leadership.
- Promote awareness, understanding, and tolerance of other people, cultures and societies.
- Involve young people in service to others, to their community, their country and their world.
- Facilitate self-reflection and processing of learning both individually and cooperatively.
- Involve youth in collaborative experiences, teamwork and networking with peers.
- Promote the character traits of Responsibility, Fairness, Dependability, and Courage.
The Importance of Community Involvement: Environments that encourage volunteer activities are critical to creating a commitment to service and community involvement that will remain with students for a lifetime. Youth involvement can produce valuable benefits to local communities and enable young people to become proactive members of society. There is a strong correlation between youth efficacy, the personal ability to make a difference in solving problems in their community, and participation in school-based service.
Workshop 2: The Truth about Drugs
Workshop Overview: Education plays a vital role in preventing drug abuse. How to talk to youth about drugs is often puzzling or appears impossible. This is why, for more than 20 years, the largest community-based drug education program, “Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life,” has been carried out worldwide. Based on the experience gained by Drug Free World, Eric James provides a real life drug education program, using practical tools that will allow students to easily learn current and factual information about the most used drugs.
Objective:
- Help students learn and understand the short and long term effects of drugs, such as alcohol, marijuana, inhalants, ecstasy, cocaine, crack cocaine, kiddie cocaine (Ritalin), crystal meth, methamphetamines, heroin, LSD, and Oxycodone (painkillers)
Workshop 3: Become a Product of CHOICE
Workshop Overview: This workshop was created to help students dig deeper into their lives, evaluate their choices, and fulfill their dreams. We can no longer allow our students to blame others for their misfortunes. We must empower them to become a product of CHOICE so that they will be able to create the life they want and deserve. CHOICE is an acronym for:
- Courage
- Habits
- Obstacles
- Imagine
- Character
- Evaluate
Objectives:
This works seeks to teach and empower youth to:
- Have the courage to stand up for what’s right.
- Create good habits.
- Create a plan to overcome obstacles.
- Imagine the person they ought to be and identify the path it takes to be that person.
- Develop values and a personal mission statement.
- Evaluate their progress and be prepared to make the necessary changes to achieve their dreams.
What People are Saying:
You made a big difference in the entire Miss Juneteenth Scholarship Pageant, from your workshop, which all of the girls loved, to the performances at the Center of the Arts and the park festival. I did an exit interview with each contestant the day before the pageant and asked them what portion of the program was the biggest benefit to them; each of them stated that your Leadership Workshop made the biggest impact. – LaVon Woods, Project Manager, South Chandler Self-Help Foundation, Inc.
Your willingness to share your experience, message and expertise with our attendees helped to make this another successful and effective conference. – Patti Wheater, Pride Conference