Leadership development is a vital component of the work we do with children, and we love to have as many of our youth continue in training and subsequent leadership role. A good portion of our staff consists of Teen Leaders that have been coming up through that trajectory.

 

Why we nurture our teens at Sassafras:

1. It allows youth ‘coming up' in our programs, to continue their journey towards responsibility and independence, and to be witnessed growing into their gifts.

2. Home-grown, embodied leadership is the best role-modeling we can offer our younger youth.

 

Teens start training at age 12 and after a proximate trajectory of 3 years, teens become “full-on” Teen Leaders that get compensated at a startup rate, with the potential of corresponding growth in the succeeding years.

 

We have different arrangements during the summer and year-round programming:

• SUMMER: In the summer we offer a week of leadership training for $300 for ages 12 and up while asking for the commitment to help out for two consecutive weeks. This means your teen is receiving quality mentoring training and gaining experience at 1/3 of our program rate.

• YEAR-ROUND: In the year-round programming, we offer leadership training for ages 12 and up as well, in both youth programs (Saturday Youth & Forest Kindergarten Fridays).
  Costs for Leadership Training that includes quality mentoring and gaining experience with age-appropriate guidance, vary with age and experience.
  
  Cost: Individual arrangements may vary based on the following guidelines:

• ​(Pre-)Teens up to age 14, with no prior NCM program experience, pay full price for at least the first season.

• Teens with prior experience enrolling for one season only, pay 50% of youth program costs.

• Teens enrolling for the year-round 3 season option, pay 33.3% or 1/3 of youth program costs ($120 per season).