The Believe Leadership Course (BLC) is a student-run branch of the Believe Initiative that works towards teaching important leadership skills to high school students. This is an 8-step Course that consists of 1 Info Session, 6 sessions (Creativity, Confidence, Resilience, Discipline, Leadership, and a Passion Project Work Week) and a Chapter Inspiration Fair.
Chapter Heads are students who run the Believe Leadership Course in their school or community. They teach the BLC programming to their students and guide students to develop projects that create change in their community (called “Passion Projects”). All the training & resources you will need to run your BLC Chapter and teach students will be provided if your Chapter Head application is accepted.
No! Believe Leadership will provide you all the session slides, notes, activities and everything you need to run a successful chapter.
By the end of the Course, Chapter Heads will be required to complete the following:
Passion Projects are projects that students create while going through the Believe Leadership Course (BLC) program. They combine a passion they have with a problem they want to solve to develop a project that creates change. You will receive more information on Passion Projects in your Chapter Head training, if accepted to be a BLC Chapter Head, and can check out past Passion Projects on our website or on the @believeleadership and @believeinitiative Instagram pages.
Before you have your first official BLC meeting, you will watch the 5 Chapter Head Training videos and read the corresponding 5 Chapter Head Training manuals – each video is about 30 mins. You can do these at your own pace, but this training must be completed before you launch your chapter and gain access to the session materials. You can ask us questions at any time as you go through the material.
You have an opportunity to earn volunteer hours for time spent on Chapter Head training, Chapter set-up/promotion, and the hours spent facilitating sessions. With a recommended timeline of 8 weeks (1 Info Session, 6 BLC Sessions, 1 Chapter Inspiration Fair) you can expect to spend 30 mins of prep and 1 hour delivering content per session, plus your training which consists of five 30 min videos. You may spend additional hours promoting your Chapter, running an info session for potential members, communicating and updating members between sessions, creating and uploading social media posts, or offering extra help to your members. You would get volunteer credit for all of those activities.
We want to positively impact as many people as possible! A good starting goal is to have 10 people in your Chapter (this may mean at least 20 at your first meeting to account for possible drop off), but past Chapters have been anywhere from 10-90 people in size! There is no “right” number.
There are many benefits of becoming a BLC Chapter Head! You will learn important leadership skills by leading a group of chapter members through the sessions, and you will obtain access to a network of other BLC Chapter Heads across North America.
This opportunity allows you to meet new people in your school, learn from them, and create a ripple effect of change in your community while guiding the newest generation of leaders.
You will also receive volunteer hours for your involvement and a Certificate of Completion to showcase on your resume or LinkedIn!
We recommend you keep the number of Chapter Heads to a minimum, ideally 1 or 2 individuals. If you have more than 1 Chapter Head, it is important that roles are clearly divided so that every Chapter Head has a purpose, and that both Chapter Heads complete the training.
If you won’t be leading a Chapter beyond this year, we suggest that you have a second Chapter Head who can learn the ropes and is able to continue the leadership role next year.
Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis! Groups are able to participate in the BLC at any point throughout the year. However, if you’d like to join our upcoming March BLC cohort and participate at the same time as other groups, we recommend that you submit your application as soon as possible!
You’ll receive news about your application status in approximately 1-2 weeks after you submit your application. If accepted, you will be guided through the Chapter Head Training and will be able to start your very own BLC Chapter, helping develop the leaders of tomorrow and helping create change in your community!
Thanks to our amazing sponsors we can offer this program free for schools!
If you are a private federation or organization, there is a small fee for the training, but we want to make sure it is still accessible for as many people as possible!
Feel free to reach out the BLC Admin at info@believeinitiative.com or @believeleadership on Instagram!
The Chapter Head Application consists of 2 written questions, and 1 video submission. Once you have completed the application form, it will be reviewed by BLC Admin and you will be informed of your Chapter Head status as soon as possible!
