The Edmund Rice Leadership Programme was a 6 month programme to improve the leadership skills of Year 9 and 10 students from Rangitahi College in Murupata. This project was built out of the desire to respond to the needs of youth in Murupara.
Edmund Rice has has a year relationship with Murupara through the work of the Christian Brothers and Edmund Rice Camps program. This programme was designed to respond to the needs of the community for students this age by targeting skills areas of community engagement, self-esteem, confidence and positive choices around drugs and alcohol.
The projects overarching goal is to develop and support the growth of the leadership skills and abilities of the children who participate on this programme to overcome the identified difficulties facing young people in Murupara. This program assisted in further understanding the narrative of Murupara youth and respond to the needs with a vision for long term sustainable engagement. The design of the programme was to encourage the 6-7 participants to become positive role models within their community, creating a positive affect with their peers at school and other young people in the community.