TROY – Troy University will become home to 35 high school student delegates with disabilities June 10-14 when it hosts the Alabama Governor’s Youth Leadership Forum. 

Some 30 volunteer staff members made up of TROY students and former YLF student delegates will join 15 health professionals, hearing-impaired interpreters and instructors on June 8-9 for training and orientation.

The Forum is co-sponsored by the University’s Institute for Leadership Development, the Alabama Governor’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services, and will include large- and small-group discussions of topics ranging from self-support to the challenges of leadership.

“YLF brings young people from all over the state to the Troy Campus -- young people who are physically or mentally challenged to attend this week of leadership training,” said Dr. John Kline, the Institute for Leadership Development’s director. “We focus on teambuilding, relationship skills, and teaching them how to be advocates for themselves and others with disabilities.”  

The Forum is funded through a cooperative effort of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs, the Alabama Developmental Disabilities Planning Council, the Department of Rehabilitation Services, the Jefferson County Commission and the University.

“Troy University is again pleased to cooperate with the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services in sponsoring this very worthwhile youth leadership forum,” said TROY Chancellor Jack Hawkins Jr. “It’s truly a beneficial conference because it helps these students better cope with the world around them and it exposes them to our family at TROY.”

Dr. Kline said that former YLF delegates routinely serve as staff members and that several are now TROY graduates.

“One of our goals is to show these young people they can achieve things even with a disability,” he said. “Some of these students have never been away from home before; this is a great opportunity for them to have new experiences.”