Amadu Sidi Bah, Winnipeg, Canada. March 22, 2024.

Training young leaders to assume the mantle of strong, managerial, inclusive and transformational leadership in any company or organization has never been more urgent in a world in which finding good future leaders not only becomes a challenge but a distant possibility.

In a bid to overcome this challenge, while having in mind the present and future needs for good leaders in our community, SALNAM took a bold step to launch the special future young leaders’ program. This program is designed to train and empower a group of young Sierra Leonean who will ultimately form a class of trained and empowered future leaders that would be well-equipped to steer the affairs of the community when called upon to do in the nearest future. In the words of the president, Mr Mo Koroma “these youths are our fine future leaders who can step in our shoes when we retire and at a time we would need them most to continue building upon the foundation of successes from my administration and the previous ones and help grow the community. Preparing our leaders of tomorrow is a strategic move to avoid leadership failures in the future”

To achieve this important aim and vision, SALNAM just concluded a six-week intensive and hands-on training that targeted a number of youths on various important topics of leadership. The training is among a number of planned activities to instill and diffuse leadership values and principles in the participants. The project encompasses other related pos- training activities that involve applying the skills learnt in practical situations and to be involved in upcoming community events with a youth-focus.

In order to exposing the participant to the best possible exposure in leadership training, SALNAM recruited a renowned expert, a well-established leadership mentor and professional versed in the discipline of leadership theory and practice- Phyllis Reid-Jarvis, Executive Coach from the Ultimate Potential firm. Ulimate Potential is a renowned leadership training institute that has built a strong standing for providing leadership training to many outstanding institutions in and outside Manitoba for a considerable number of years. The firm produced a workbook for each participant that incorporated the state of art knowledge and tools on what it takes to be inclusive and transformative leaders now and in future.
Participants from the training sessions expressed their delight for participating in a first program of its kind and learnt foundational concepts related to topics including but not limited to:

· Self-leadership

· Leading social initiative

· Leading sustainability and environmental issues

· Leading a psychologically safe system of work

· Leading collaboration and teambuilding

· Leading with technical skills aligned with inter-human responsibilities

The component of the training workshop started in February and ended on March 16, 2024.

Applying post training skills, knowledge and abilities is a process. And with this in mind, there are already plans for post-training initiatives intended to ground participant with solid skills on and ongoing basis and these include for example, identifying future leader support leads. This scheme will involve selected top graduates who will be prepared to serve as peer supporters for other aspiring future leaders. Another pillar of this plan is to involve some participants in direct mentorship with the program facilitator, working alongside the firm in carrying out related program that will attract some stipend rewards.

The SALNAM executive expresses heartfelt thanks for the overwhelming support received from the funding agency- The supporting Black Canadian Community Initiatives (SBCC1), the tireless work of key executive members who volunteered their time and resources to prepare food in order to make the program a success. Mrs Margaret Konteh, Mrs Aisha Bangura, Mrs. Halimatu Kamara and the president himself Mr. Mo Koroma deserve special mention. Amadu Sidi Bah with support from the president carried out the project planning work that included drafting and finalizing the project related documents and successfully undertook pre-project implementation ground work.