Youth United Initiative 2016

"Youth United Initiative" is a series of workshops Habitat for Humanity Japan Youth program offers to campus chapter members. A campus chapter is a student-led, student-initiated organization on a college campus that partners with Habitat for Humanity Japan to fulfill the four functions; volunteering, fundraising, advocating and networking to realize Habitat's vision "a world where everyone has a decent place to live". To realize our vision, Habitat for Humanity Japan organizes this initiative to support campus chapter leaders across Japan, opening many doors for their activities with the longtime support from Goldman Sachs.
"Youth United Initiatives 2016" were held at Goldman Sachs (Tokyo) on July 9, 2016. Thanks to Goldman Sachs financial support, 60 student leaders from 30 campus chapters including those from outside of Tokyo area were able to join in the workshop with also the support of 15 Goldman Sachs volunteers from Community TeamWorks (CTW). During the workshop, each group of 4 students discussed any challenges they face as a leader and a CTW volunteer gave some inputs and led them to a solution at the end of the session.
Yui Enomoto, vice president of Kwansei Gakuin University Kobe Sanda Campus Chapter said that she was excited to see the other chapter leaders from all over Japan for the first time and expected to learn from CTW volunteers how to manage members' different expectations to run a better campus chapter. Yui said, "I was especially inspired to learn what the true leader is from this workshop. Our team mentor told us we should more focus on to be a 'people manager', not to be a 'task manager'. A true leader should give a task depending on personal characters and strong points. It is important to place your value on people rather than task." Yui and the other students seemed to be willing to learn from CTW volunteers and what they shared from their experiences.

At the closing of the session, a CTW volunteer sent a message to the students. "We saw your unlimited possibilities today. Your passion to contribute yourself to society can motive others and bring more people together to help you accomplish your goal. So always aim high with your positive actions and energies, and please continue to lead more young people who can make a difference in the world."