Leadership Academy Mentoring Program

The Leadership Academy Mentoring Program (LAMP) offers leadership skill development in combination with vocational arts education for young people aged 14–24 living in low-income households. 

The program aims to inspire and empower participants as they create personal and career growth plans to enable self-sustainability, overcome personal barriers and contribute positively to their families and communities.

LAMP builds leadership skills in combination with four creative disciplines: 
•    Film/TV production
•    Graphic design/silk screening
•    Music production
•    Photography

Why the arts? Studies show that at-risk youth who have access to the arts have better academic outcomes, higher career goals and are more civically engaged. *

Curriculum

LAMP is a year-round curriculum, meeting twice a week during the school year for two hours each session, and more during the summer. If funding is available, LBCAP may also hire participants as summer interns, providing an opportunity to gain valuable work experience.

LAMP consists of three kinds of instruction: targeted leadership education, personal development workshops and specific instruction in the arts. 

Targeted leadership education
In the targeted leadership education component, LAMP teaches teens to re-evaluate their daily interactions within their families, at school and among peers, encouraging them to take initiative and accept more responsibility. LAMP participants also complete a StrengthsQuest training module to identify their personal themes and inherent talents.

Personal development workshops
These workshops incorporate team-building and character-development exercises. Participants learn life skills including personal finance, workforce readiness, diversity training and nutrition/fitness education. 

Arts education and training
Leveraging the fact that we live in the same region as some of the world’s foremost creative professionals, we recruit recognized experts to teach each of the program’s four arts disciplines. Because of our association with PADNET and other local organizations, LAMP participants also learn these valuable skills on state-of-the-art equipment using industry-standard tools, preparing them for career opportunities in our own community and beyond. 

LAMP also maintains a strategic partnership with the GRAMMY Museum that has created learning opportunities beyond the boundaries of Long Beach—and our imagination. As a result, LAMP students have performed at museum events, traveled to the White House, participated in the museum’s summer music program, and secured jobs at the museum.

Bringing it all together
Through this combination of instruction, LAMP participants learn to organize, write and present information, which develops their interpersonal and communication skills. They learn to plan activities, and think through complex tasks. We foster their desire to be challenged and cultivate the ability to solve problems creatively, reason critically, develop positive relationships, stay flexible and open-minded in thought and action, understand ambiguous concepts and build camaraderie by encouraging each other.

Young people want their opinions and interests to matter. LAMP creates that environment by giving teens a voice, an opportunity to learn and express themselves, and a conduit for their talents.  

How to apply

Each year, we enroll between 80 and 120 youth in LAMP. Participants must be at-risk or underserved and between the ages of 14 and 24, either in-school or out-of-school.

To learn more about LAMP and apply, contact Terrence Berry, Youth Programs Coordinator.

* The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth: Findings from Four Longitudinal Studies (2012), National Endowment for the Arts