what is YLI?

In a world that is so small, yet so divided, Youth Leaders International (YLI) seeks to inspire youth from around the world with the motivation and confidence to lead and serve others, while challenging current perspectives and practices for a sustainable and tolerant future. YLI teaches youth the value of a life lived in balance and to respect the lessons learned by our fathers and the life lessons they pass on to us. YLI also imparts the lessons of a life lived without excess and to understand and avoid addictions of all types as the old saying of "everything in moderation" bodes. Through a collection of Global Programs, YLI brings students from 15 different communities around the world – from Russia to Honduras, from Australia to Kenya. The Programs teach the students the virtues of community service, diversity, and leadership while emphasizing our founding principle of preventing prejudice.

Founded in 1996 by Jerold Samet, a longtime philanthropist, and his son, Michael Samet, YLI started off with a small program involving students from France, Ireland, and the United States. Working closely with schools from those countries, the program began to evolve and adjust, and using the lessons learned from those early programs, grew by 2004 to host three conferences per year with nearly a hundred students from six continents at each conference.

The founders of YLI had spent years before its founding working with other youth programs in America, paying attention to comments, suggestions, and evaluations from participants, so when they finally decided to start their own program, they based their work on the lessons they'd learned from past youth groups. This strategy proved so successful that it became a central tool to the design of future YLI Programs. Following every YLI conference, all the participants – students and adult counselors – would be given evaluation forms to complete. These forms would question the participants impressions on every workshop, speaker, and activity at the conference. This valuable insight from the very people that we are teaching has been invaluable as staff sit down to lay the groundwork for every future conference. Understanding the viewpoints and ideas from a diverse multinational group is challenging, but without fully committing to recognize, acknowledge, and act on their impressions, any work done in the future is not using its full potential.