United Partnerships, a collaborative effort between the United Way of Greater Fall River and People, Incorporated  sponsored a Leadership Training at each of the four Fall River Middle Schools on February 11th and April 2nd, 2008. In all, 200 students were given the opportunity to learn about making good decisions, staying on the right path and overcoming peer pressure.  The training was conducted by Deb and Dana Hult of CORE trainings, and the feedback from both teachers and students has been overwhelmingly positive. Words like “fantastic” and “loved it!” were used numerous times by the students. Students felt like they walked away with ideas they could implement into their everyday lives that would help them both at school and at home. People, Incorporated has made the commitment to secure funding to continue this training for the next two years for a commitment of offering the training to 600 students over the 3 year period. In addition, a student-to-student mentoring training will be added to the Leadership series and will take place sometime in September 2008 at each of the middle schools. For more information, contact People Incorporated's Director of Communications Melissa Reilly at 508-679-5233.
 

(Top row, left) Henry Lord Middle School Principal Debra DeCarlo welcomes the students to the day-long leadership training program in the school's library. (Top row, center and right) Trainer Deb Hult opens the session for about thirty students. (Middle row, left and right) While Deb leads the training at Henry Lord, her husband Dana leads a similar workshop at the Kuss Middle School. (Bottom row) Kuss Middle School students go through a series of group exercises designed to get students comfortable with one another.