Robles del Futuro is an extracurricular activity created to educate and train young people between the ages of 13 and 18—primary and secondary school students—in leadership skills, socio-emotional competencies, and civic management. This activity is implemented through monitoring and planning methodologies, strengths exploration, critical thinking development, the ability to work in high-performance teams, and decision-making autonomy. Each participant participates for two years in training to enhance their personal skills and positive influence on others.
The transformative leadership of young people is very high, given their life stage, where peer influence is expansive and their determination is high. The positive change that can be brought about in a young person has a wide range of influence in their families, schools, and other spaces of interaction. Furthermore, as mentors of the participants, we aim to influence their ethical profile from this early age, so that their understanding and respect for human relationships becomes a guide for the pursuit of goals and the construction of a life plan. The impact that the Robles del Futuro program has had on students from different schools leads us to promote this educational innovation as a structure that enhances learning acquisition, growth in influential leadership, and social sensitivity. It provides executive structure while equipping young people with socioemotional skills to improve their relationships.
The following three components represent the training delivery of the two-year Robles del futuro program: Program Content: where the development of life skills, leadership, and social entrepreneurship are combined with experiential learning and cutting-edge methodologies such as theater improvisation, biodance, and the development of individual strengths, vocational coaching, a decision-making bootcamp, podcast design, and intensive mindfulness training. Goal Planning Mentoring: personalized support through 15 follow-up sessions with mentors trained in planning, to encourage young people to achieve three self-identified goals: Academic, Well-being, and the Common Good, over a period of 9 months. Youth Initiative for the Common Good: 10-month group work that raises awareness among young people about environmental issues and empowers them as agents of change. It encompasses project-based learning, problem identification, proposed solutions, implementation, and systematization of the results of socially focused entrepreneurship.
Since its creation in 2011, 491 leaders have received scholarships and 8,700 have directly benefited from its social projects. Robles del Futuro Program has directly impacted 325 schools in the metropolitan area of Venezuela, located in three states in the central region of the country (Miranda, the Capital District, and Vargas) and nine municipalities. Some of the graduates have launched their own social enterprises to continue impacting more people: sports and values-based schools, community intervention programs for families in Caracas neighborhoods, and care for the elderly. Additionally, four graduates are part of the Civil Association's work team, where various programs are implemented. We currently offer the program's methodology and resources to partner schools.
The global COVID-19 pandemic prompted the organization to recognize the need to firmly integrate digital skills into the training of young leaders. Currently, program students demonstrate their progress in this area by proposing innovative solutions to the challenges of their environment, leveraging the versatility of web environments, social media, and digital dissemination channels as fundamental tools. At the same time, an additional component was incorporated into the program: the English Conversation Club. This program offers opportunities to improve a second language crucial for future leaders, specifically conversational proficiency, enabling them to connect and collaborate effectively on the global stage. Although the Venezuelan education system includes English as a mandatory subject, recent studies reveal that only a minority of students (approximately two in ten) achieve adequate proficiency in the language. Aware of this reality, the Robles del Futuro program seeks to significantly enhance this essential skill for the personal and professional development of its participants. Finally, and as the most recent addition, the Pillars of Financial Education has been added as an annual elective. This is a series of two meetings to explain and discuss financial concepts and best practices for young people.
Robles del Futuro has been developed so that it can be applied by other actors, and for this reason its programmatic structure is sufficiently systematized and documented. Based on the shared educational model of Robles del Futuro, a group of graduates developed the Eudomonía project, a training proposal for 68 young people in their 5th year of high school at the Andrés Bello Didactic Institute.
