About Us

Mission statement: "In service to community, Future Leaders of America provides leadership training, educational experiences, and promotes the personal development of Latino youth, for the purpose of fostering a greater awareness and participation in responsible leadership in a global and democratic society."

Theory of Change: Future Leaders of America, Inc. believe that the only way to have lasting community empowerment is to develop the role models and leadership in each community so that the next generation of youth have pro-social role models. Identifying youth as leaders and developing them as the agents of social change not only impacts the community in the present, but also changes the attitudes and behaviors for the future as youth see themselves, and their peers, as leaders.
Future Leaders accomplishes its mission through a "peer-to-peer" mentorship model where all programs and services are lead by youth ages 14-24. Future Leaders believe that in order to have true impact on youth, youth need to be the mentors, teachers, and role models – Leaders – in each community. Through this "peer-to-peer" model, Future Leaders has found that youth gain an understanding and appreciation for democratic values including equity, social justice, and most importantly, inclusion in today’s decision-making process. Future Leaders is unique among other youth organizations because it is youth-led and incorporates the entire family to build protective factors in adolescents in order to increase their educational attainment and civic engagement.

Programs: Future Leaders of America’s objective is to train young people to become effective leaders in their communities by increasing pro-social behaviors in youth, ages 14-24. Future Leaders accomplishes this through a "peer-to-peer" mentorship model where students who participated in previous years, come back year after year, to mentor, teach, and role model for newer participants. The services are provided throughout California and include: Leadership Camps, University Seminars, Enrichment Workshops, School-based Clubs, Family Leadership Retreats, Community Service Projects, and Youth Organizing & Global Leadership Seminars in conjunction with students in Mexico.

Measuring Outcomes: Future Leaders of America, Inc. believe that tracking measurable outcomes and accountability are critical to determining its success in achieving its mission. To Future Leaders of America, Inc. credit, the organization has invested in a formal evaluation model.

An independent evaluator, Dr. Peter Ellis, Executive Director of Crime Prevention Associates based in Alameda, has designed a Performance Logic Model Evaluation System for all Future Leaders of America, Inc. programs. The Future Leaders of America, Inc. evaluation system incorporates the latest research and recommendations of evaluators that call for a “Theory of Change Logic Model” approach to evaluation designs (J.P. Connell, A.C. Kubisch, L.B. Schorr, C.H. Weiss). In addition, this model has demonstrated cost effienciency and positive effect on youth.

Future Leaders expects to achieve an average increase of 70% in the following outcome indicators: positive self-image, ability to set and achieve higher educational goals, ability to communicate with others, interaction with Latino role models/university students, ability to work with others, ability to express oneself and speak in public. At every workshop/conference, students, program coordinators, and parents are asked whether the program helped the participant get “better/same/worse” in each outcome indicator listed above. In addition to these program results, student resiliency levels are surveyed twice per year to assess their low-medium-high levels of risk factors coming into the program and after they have participated in year-round activities during the academic year.

The current evaluation report has found:

• Customer Satisfaction: Youth and parent customers indicated a high level of customer satisfaction for the services delivered by FLA programs in 2005. The average satisfaction of youth was 82.5% while the average satisfaction of parents was 96.7%.
• Service Productivity (Initial Outcomes): Future Leaders of America achieved a high youth service productivity score for each of the FLA programs and achieved a high score for all the programs as a whole. Youth indicated an 85.6% change in targeted youth developmental assets and an 85.4% change in targeted skills, knowledge, attitude and behavior. FLA greatly surpassed the evaluator’s set goal of 60% and also FLA’s internal goal of achieving a 70% change.
• Between July 2004-June 2005, FLA provided a total of 161,726 hours of direct service to 3,900 youth and parent customers at a cost of $3.59 an hour for total funds. This cost per hour is very efficient and much less than other educational programs. For example, California funds schools at a rate of $8.00 an hour and the California Youth Authority services youth at $200 an hour.

Organizational history: Founded in 1982; Incorporated 1985; Future Leaders was an all-volunteer run organization until 2002. Today, its programs are implemented by volunteer staff, under the support and guidance of the organization’s 7 paid staff members.