Youth Leadership Training Program

YOUTH LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM (YLTP)

Building Dynamic Leaders for Tomorrow

Lakshminarayanan, from a small village in Kurnool district, Andhra Pradesh, was once on the verge of suicide. Only in his early 20s, he thought his problems were unprecedented and that the only way to be free of them was to be free of the world. Luckily for him, someone sent him to do the Youth Leadership Training Program (YLTP) at The Art of Living International center in Bangalore. Ten days later, he says, his life changed

The Youth leadership training program was established in August 1999. This program has a unique syllabus. Not only does the Youth Leadership Training Program focus on personal development and communication skills. Through stress-reducing breathing techniques, individuals find inner peace and communities to come together in a spirit of service. Participants are inspired to volunteer for rural projects, and the fruits of the seeds sown in the classroom can be experienceded by the community as a whole.

YLTP - India

Trained over 110,000 rural youth
Reached 40,212 villages in India
55 model villages (in progress)
Planted over 2.3 million trees
2138 homes, 7819 toilets, 1152 bore-wells and 904 bio-gas plants built
49,500 hygiene camps and 25,950 medical camps conducted benefiting 2.82 million people

Success Stories

Testimonials

Vilasrao Deshmukh
Chief Minister, Maharashtra at a gathering of half a million people in Mumbai, Nov 2006
The Art of Living has given a new lease of life and stopped the suicides (in Vidarbha). This is what His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has been able to do, for which the Government is very happy. I am happy that the organization has given farmers the strength to live.

Pravin Thakre
Rural Development
I gave up alcohol and tobacco after the training workshop. It helped me to regain my confidence. There was a time when I used to lease my land to other farmers. The chemical-free farming skills I have learnt have given me the confidence to cultivate my own land.

Jayant Bhole
Coordinator, Project Vidharbha - Swavalamban Programme
There has not been a single instance of suicide in the 509 villages we have worked in so far. There are about 1, 000 villages in the Amravati region of Vidarbha. We are training more youth leaders to reach out to all the villages.

Devendra Borde
A farmer from Vidarbha
Before Art of Living, there was depression and debt everywhere. I'm confident that with the zero budget farming taught in the course, the produce will improve and debts will be cleared.