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Leadership Training Institute
Content Areas covered at Leadership Training Institute
Purpose and Objectives
The Leadership Training Institute will provide an opportunity for an annual five-day residential training program for each of the member schools of the MIAA. The Institute will enhance the ability of each school to deliver effective programs to its constituents, focusing on two priority areas: preventing tobacco, alcohol, and other drug problems and promoting positive sportsmanship.
Each school is invited to nominate a candidate who will work with their state association to provide leadership for these efforts. Through the institute, these leaders will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to help local districts/schools plan and implement programs.
The Leadership Training Institute will also provide an annual opportunity for each member school to showcase its own successes, learn from other school's experiences, and expand its own cade of volunteer leaders.
WORKSHOP OBJECTIVES
As a result of participating in the Leadership Training Institute, participants will be able to:
- Identify the role of school activities in reducing tobacco,
alcohol, and other drug use problems and in promoting positive sportsmanship.
- Assist local school districts to plan and implement programs.
- Plan and conduct training events for coaches, athletic
administrators and other school activity staff members.
- Plan and conduct student leadership workshops for high school
students and their adult leaders.
- Help local school districts plan and conduct parent/student/staff
pre-season meetings.
- Identify resources available to help them in the future.
Setting Standards through School Activities
SCHOOL ACTIVITIES HAVE A VOICE
School activities are a powerful influence in young people's lives. Nationally, over ten
million students participate (5,256,196 in athletics). Students who participate in
athletics and other school activities often develop strong attachments to teams or groups
and follow the standards of the group. And because of the attention given to sports and
performing arts, participants and their adult leaders are highly visible. They become role
models -- for better or for worse -- in their communities. Therefore, school activities
provide an opportunity to set positive standards not only for those who participate, but
for their friends, family, and other fans.
SETTING STANDARDS ABOUT TOBACCO, ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUGS
Through the 1980s, this principle was evidenced in countless communities throughout the
United States and Canada. Student athletes, fine arts participants and their coaches took
a stand, discouraging illegal and innappropriate use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs.
Although their efforts cannot be given full credit for the decline in the adolescent use
of drugs during these years, they were a strong voice, giving local credence to what
eventually became a national trend.
Indeed, research on drug prevention now recognizes that "embedding drug prevention
messages in the context of other activities, rather than addressing it directly . . . is a
key aspect of the most promising programs." (Prevention: Common Features of Promising
Community Programs; U.S. General Accounting Office Adolescent Drug Use GAO/PEMD-92-2,
1992).
STATE ASSOCIATIONS PROVIDE LEADERSHIP
Many state athletic and activity associations took the lead in these efforts by providing
training, written and audio-visual materials, and other support to their member schools.
They actively promoted three avenues for working through school activities to prevent
tobacco, alcohol, and other drug problems:
1) Training for coaches and other school activity staff members
2) Student leadership training, and
3) Pre-season meetings
It has become increasingly clear that these three approaches can be successfully applied
to other priority areas, such as sportsmanship.
SETTING STANDARDS FOR SPORTSMANSHIP
Responding to the needs expressed by their membership, several state associations have
recently stepped up their sportsmanship efforts. They have developed policies and codes of
conduct that define and provide penalties for poor sportsmanship; rewarded positive acts
of sportsmanship; disseminated sportsmanship information to member schools; and conducted
sportsmanship summits, conferences and workshops for coaches, officials, and student
leaders.
Print Application for Leadership Training Institute(PDF)
Content Areas covered at Leadership Training Institute
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