`UrbanArts is a non-profit Community Arts Council focused on enhancing neighborhoods by engaging youth in community development through the arts.  Our mandate is to promote, engage and facilitate cultural and community development opportunities between artists, arts organizations and community members.  We do this through the delivery of cutting edge programming and events to young people from within the former city of York but more specifically those from Weston-Mount Dennis. 

Road To Leadership (R2L) is a leadership program for youth who want to be actively involved in their community. R2L is a personal and leadership development program to help the youth arts program at UrbanArts and participating community organizations. R2L participants are UrbanArts ambassadors that connect youth to art through events and outreach.

The R2L program is designed into 6 different categories to offer smaller steps into leadership development training.

1. Personal Development focuses on life skills and the workshops will be based on team building, etiquette and behavior within the group and in everyday life situations.

2. Program Development concentrates on what skills are needed for leadership development within the program so it can be practiced in the community. This includes communication skills, public speaking skills and volunteering in the community. Furthermore, it allows youth to connect with neighboring communities and provides resources for future endeavors.

3. The aim of the Career development stream is to teach R2L participants the craft of personal branding and networking in the community and internationally to further your education and career. We will connect with employment agencies and youth counsellors to help with resume writing and how to further reach goals.

4. The Financial Literacy is there to help participants make informed decisions on their financial parts of life. The workshops involved will give tips on how to manage money better and make good investments.

5. Health and Sex education workshops will provide information on health, nutrition and sexual health.

6. Participants in R2L will be participating in several community service such as Earth day. This will encourage participants to be more involved in the community and meet leaders within the community.

Events led by UrbanArts will be running throughout the year and R2L will be offer support and help cordinate the events and connect youth to arts through outreaching and marketing with UrbanArts events.

If you would like R2L to help plan your art-based event, contact us and we will give you more information.

Contact us at roadtoleadership@hotmail.com or roadtoleadership@gmail.com.

Our new blog is not running yet. It will start on September 27 when our R2L leadership program has officially started.