Seventh Interamerican Leadership Training (ILT7)

This course began in 2013 in order to strengthen Scouting in the Interamerican Region (IAR) and its National Scout Organizations (NSO) through young scouts, who were invited to train and to put in practice their leadership skills to improve their home groups and their NSO as a whole.

This year, ILT received young scouts from the Interamerican Scout Region, to include a total of 36 countries including participants from Singapore, Taiwan, Spain and Poland in order to expand and to take this course to help strengthen youth leadership skills in scouts from other regions.

The ILT curriculum has evolved with the program, to include important topics such as:

• Vision, goals, and planning
• Conflict resolution
• Ethical leadership
• Stages of team development
• Diversity and inclusion
• Emotional intelligence
• Leading virtual teams
• The UN's Sustainable Development Goals
• Many WOSM resources, such as the Scout Donation Platform, its governance strategy, and the Better World Framework.

In addition, participants engaged in important discussions in all of WOSM's strategic goals, ranging from governance to youth engagement. Conference sessions allowed participants to attend the topics they felt the most important to them and their NSO.

Throughout the week, teams developed Messengers of Peace projects based on the Sustainable Development Goals, they identified common factors to improve in each of their countries and they worked as a team to find a solution and start taking action on it.

This year’s Senior Team Leader was Brandon Koots from Curaçao who led the youth staff members in the months prior, preparing the final details for ILT. This course was developed by an incredible team of youth staff of scouts from the Interamerican Scout Region, they planned and prepared the ILT program to make this 6-day course a success. Adults who staffed this course focused on mentoring youth leaders and enabling them in order for the team to succeed.

Some of the participants and staff shared with us:

"ILT7 was a life changing, I got a lot of knowledge but also a new family distribute throughout all America and the world. Family in one place together to share experiences together which I will never ever forget and will always be in my heart. I was taught that scouting is not all about camping, tying knots and build fires but I never could describe the true definition of scouting in my own words but now I can definitely say that scouting is exponentially bigger than that, It’s about making impact in the world, changing lives, be a scout, creating lifelong family, Making yourself a better leader so you can inspire others to do the same and with that creating a better world." - Karen Rooi,  Curaçao

"It was not until the 7th Interamerican Leadership Training that I truly found my bearings as a leader in a globalized, fast-paced, complicated world. While the roots of ILT can be found in the BSA’s extensive leadership curricula, ILT provides a unique opportunity to work with Scouts and Scouters from realities that differ greatly from those found in one’s local council or even across the entirety of the BSA. I want to thank ILT for introducing me to a world of possibilities, a group of friends from nearly every corner of America, and the tools that allow me to be “always ready” (“Siempre Listo”) to Create a Better World. I cannot wait to bring what I learned at ILT to my work in the BSA and my career." - Charles Echard, USA

"I had the opportunity to be a participant of the 5th ILT on behalf of the Scout Association of Venezuela, every knowledge and learning acquired was fundamental for my personal growth in teamwork, understanding groups, decision making and leadership implementation. Similarly, I shared a wonderful experience with young people from different parts with incredible ambitions for the future showing me the immense brotherhood and support that define the Scout Movement. My way, as Team Advisor, through  the 7th ILT showed me the right times where I had to stop and think, when I had to ask for help and when to continue, for that I feel grateful to all the people that I came across, each one of them was important for me in this discovery process personal. For me the Interamerican Leadership Training has become a great place to find with yourself and be found by the world" - Edwin Contreras, Venezuela.

We look forward to returning in December 2020 to Panama for the Eighth Interamerican Leadership Training!