APD Youth Leadership Program

The APD Youth Leadership Program partners with J. Frank Dobie Middle School & College Prep Academy. Middle and high school aged children enjoy one months of free summer programming. Participants experience activities, such as bowling, swimming, volleyball and dodge ball and immerse themselves in the study of subjects such as art, history, social justice, the environment, leadership, decision making, and time and money management. They also go on field trips (sometimes overnight) to unique destinations, such as the USS Lexington in Corpus Christi and the South Padre Island Wildlife Sanctuary.

For more information, please contact:

Sharon Cannon
Austin Police Department Community Liaison
African American Outreach Liaison
sharon.cannon@austintexas.gov
512-974-6262

2021 Youth Leadership Program in Review

85 middle and high schoolers attended this free summer program and saw it all the way through. Their reward? The satisfaction of having spent a good portion of their summer engaged in discovering and developing the kind of skills and knowledge necessary to become successful leaders, and adults. Moreover, they earned the respect of their parents, peers, and program mentors. Retired officer Eric Oak min, the APD Office of Community Liaison, and a giving community of private and public organizations, and philanthropic individuals, in a truly collaborative effort, came together to provide a personal development experience: a two month leadership program, designed to empower teens ages 12 to 17 years of age, by helping them develop the personal tools to create an exciting future. Program attendees constructively used their summer break from school to develop leadership skills, but only after taking to heart the fact that in order to be leaders, they must be good stewards of themselves, first Self mastery, first, then leadership, was this summer's constant refrain, and in a dynamic, hands-on learning environment that used a variety of fun and challenging projects, activities, workshops and discussions, program attendees were encouraged to develop self-confidence and self-mastery and to lead by example. Retired APD Officer Eric Oak min, the originator and a fourteen year veteran of this youth leadership program, in collaboration with Austin Independent School District's, Dobie Middle School, strives each year to pull together summer youth programming for what has been an annual average of up to 120 attendees since the program's inception - Programming that continues to keep Austin's youth out of trouble and heading towards the bright future that is their birth right. Many thanks to officer Oak Min and the Austin Police Department for continuing to provide this strong community program for Austin youth.