National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT)

National Youth Leadership Training is an exciting, action packed program designed to provide youth members of Scouting America with leadership skills and experience they can use in their home troops and in any other situations demanding leadership of self and leadership of others.

Built on the legacy of past JLT successes, the new NYLT integrates the best of modern leadership theory with the traditional strengths of the Scouting experience. Through activities, presentations, challenges, discussions, and audio-visual support, NYLT participants will be engaged in a unified approach to leadership that will give them the skills and confidence to lead well. Through a wide range of activities, events, games, and adventures, NYLT participants will work and play together as they put into action the best that Scouting has to offer.

NYLT models a month in the life of troop – three meetings (one each day for the first three days) leading up to a big outdoor experience (an overnight outpost camp). The course uses the patrol method and presents model Patrol Leaders’ Council meetings. Patrols are challenged early in the week to present to the troop at the end of the week their “Quest for the Meaning of Leadership.” While the challenge is designed to have patrols experience the four stages of team development, it will help patrols and individual Scouts internalize the leadership skills and concepts being presented to them along the way. Throughout the course, the staff will be modeling the concepts and skills that are the core content of the course. The patrols will be challenged with many activities and games, including using GPS receivers to participate in a Geocache wide game. The focus of each session is not only knowledge but giving the youth a “Toolbox of Skills” that equips them with the “how” of leadership.

Objectives of National Youth Leadership Training
  • Give participants the confidence and knowledge to conduct the troop program in their home units
  • Provide participants with a clear understanding of team and personal development
  • Create an environment of Scouting fellowship and fun guided by the Scout Oath and Law
  • Give participants the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with Scouts from other troops
  • Have fun and experience Scouting at its best