Blogs and News | YOU Life Skills and Leadership Educational Foundation

Benefits of Keeping a Journal

5 Easy Ways to Build Your Confidence as a Teen

Being a teenager comes with its ups and downs, and it’s normal to feel unsure about yourself sometimes. The good news is, confidence isn’t something you’re born with—it’s something you can...

Annette Evans Wilson Featured On VMA Unbox Me Today Show

Annette Evans Wilson overcame personal obstacles to become a dedicated English teacher, positively impacting the lives of countless young people in a challenging environment. Her mantra "maybe I...

Is it Teenitude or Attitude?

I get excited whenever I get to introduce people to teenitude. The attitude of a teenager is different from any other kind of attitude. It’s a wonderful stage in which pre-teens and teens begin to...

4th Annual Inland Empire Education and Workforce Summit 4/24/2024

The Panelists and Kenote Speaker

Red Robin Fundraiser Thursday April 11, 2024

Come to Red Robin on Lugonia Ave in the Citrus Plaza on April 11, 2024, for lunch or dinner to support at-risk teens in the Inland Empire. You get dinner, and they donate 20% of your food and drink...

Community Christian College Scholarship Signing Event

YOU Life Skills and Leadership Educational Foundation is excited to announce our partnership with the athletic department of Community Christian College in Redlands, CA.

Human Trafficking Prevention Symposium

January 18, 2024 our Executive Director, Annette Wilson presented "Rediscovering Conflict - Improving Relationship by Embracing Conflict" at the 2024 Human Trafficking Prevention Symposium in Rancho...

San Bernardino County Gangs and Drugs Taskforce 2023 Safety Summit

Monday, October 23, 2023 was the San Bernardino County Gangs and Drugs Taskforce 2023 Summit. It was attended by County leaders and professionals from San Bernardino County and surrounding counties...

Bake Sale Fundraiser at Redlands Ranch Market

The generosity of Redlands, CA was shown in full force on September 18, 2023 as many people came out to support our bake sale. Everything from apple butter to chocolate covered pretzel rods were...

Berdoo Baggers Fundraiser

A giant thanks goes out to Helen Rodriguez and Berdoo Baggers for hosting us for a fundraiser at their weekly meetup. After a bit of rain, we had a lot of fun watching all the games and learning how...

San Bernardino Pastors United

It was a pleasure to meet with San Bernardino Pastors United to discuss how we can help deal with many of the problems affecting the youth in our community. Annette introduced the program to the...

How to Spend Your Summer Break Productively (and Avoid Regrets)

According to: Posts for teens | by teens

Summer break is the perfect time for high school students to recharge their batteries and pursue their passions. From taking up a new hobby to volunteering in your local community, make the most out...

MARCH Air Show 2023

Annette and Mark Wilson had a great time at the March Air Reserve Base Air Show representing YOU Life Skills and Leadership Educational Foundation. Air Show participants enjoyed identifying their...

Balancing Academic Pressure with a Social Life

According to: Posts for teens | by teens

One of the challenges that kids face today is how to balance the pressures of school with social life. Learning how to balance the two is essential for a teen’s overall well-being. Here are some...

Overcoming Depression: A Personal Journey and Words of Encouragement

According to: Posts for teens | by teens

Depression is a genuine and serious mental health issue affecting millions of people worldwide. As a teenager, you may feel alone in your struggles, but it is essential to remember that you are not....

YOU Life Skills and Leadership for High School Seniors

We just completed our first 9-week YOU Life Skills for High School Seniors at San Bernardino High School, in San Bernardino, California. What a great group of kids! The course consisted of an...

Is it Depression or Simple Teenage Moodiness?

In an article entitled “How to Spot Signs of Teen Depression”, written by Kate Hurley LCSW, and reviewed by Allison Young MD on October 9, 2019, Hurley reports that “depression is one of the...

Teaching Teens Self-Advocacy

Teens crave independence and should be learning how to solve their own problems. But how can they when parents want to make sure they "get it right"? Learn how to prepare your teens to advocate for...

The Benefits of Failure

Although we seem to be convinced from a young age to seek success at all costs, and even to “freak out” at even the possibility of failure, Michael Lindenmayer, in an article in Forbes magazine,...

Don’t Be Afraid To Fail

According to: Posts for teens, by teens

Accompanied with every obstacle we face in life, is a lesson to be learned. Whether we feel defeated or like a conqueror, all our challenges form us into stronger individuals . It is highly...

Conflict Creates the Story

Have you ever read a story without a conflict? If there were no conflict, there wouldn’t be a story. Yet we do everything we can to avoid conflict in life. Could it be that we are looking at...

Self-Advocacy Brings Self Respect

According to: Posts for teens, by teens

“As I was growing up, I was never great at advocating for myself. My experience in foster care instilled the false notion that I was insignificant into my mind; accompanied by loads of childhood...

Courage to Become

From childhood we develop our first identity, our cultural identity. This is the identity that is imposed on us by others. It comes from our families and our life at home and gradually extends to our...

The Value of Self-Worth

“Coming to know your worth doesn’t just change you. It changes the way you see everyone else because you can see their worth too.” by Portia Louder Self-Leadership requires that we understand...

And A Little Child Shall Lead Them

Isaiah 11:6 As I was growing up, I remember hearing the saying “before you try cleaning up the world, you better look at your own back door”. This was an era of unsettled times. The Vietnam...

Understand More, Fear Less

"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less." by Marie Curie

Self-Leadership vs. Self-Control

YOU Life Skills and Leadership is committed to teach leadership as a life skill. So why self-leadership and not self-control? Perhaps I can give an example using my Sharperean Husky. Juno was...

They said “you can’t”

Many of our marginalized students today have been raised with a “You can’t” mentality. From the cradle the people who are most important to them have told them they can’t succeed for reasons...