The Center For Youth Leadership

Center for Youth Leadership

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Teens don't care. Yeah, right.

The Center for Youth Leadership is the largest youth activism organization in Fairfield County, and one of the largest in Connecticut. Our mission is to promote social change. The Center for Youth Leadership, which is based at Brien McMahon High School in Norwalk, was established in 1999 when six students asked for help in examining the connection between academic achievement and where students live in Norwalk.

These and other initiatives led members of the Center for Youth Leadership to create a model of youth activism that they call socially engaged philanthropy. Check out the “about us” link for information about the model, which has been adopted by two programs at Brien McMahon High, as well as a couple of partnerships in Fairfield County: the Stamford Youth Services Bureau and Stamford High School and the Greenwich YWCA and Greenwich High School.

The Center for Youth Leadership, which has grown to 220 members, is the recipient of the Governor’s Educational Citizenship Award; the Night of the Child Award from Prevent Child Abuse Connecticut; the Volunteer Service Award from the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County; and the First for Kids Award from Connecticut Voices for Children.

“You will meet people who will try to shut you up or entice you to compromise your principles in any number of ways. They’ll try to seduce you and distract you with money, power, security and
most dangerously a sense of belonging. Don’t let them.
It’s just not worth it."

Samuel Jackson