KIPCO & LOYAC Send Teenage Girls on a Leadership Summer Retreat

Sponsored by KIPCO, eleven girls between the ages of 12 and 18 participated in LOYAC’s ‘Summer Leadership Retreat’ in Nottinghamshire, UK. The retreat came as part of KIPCO’s ongoing partnership with LOYAC, a local non-profit organization that aims to empower youth to become impactful leaders in society.

The retreat's leadership course was based on the ‘7 Habits for Highly Effective Teens’ workshop by Franklin Covey, in addition to activities that reinforce teamwork and leadership, foster personal independence and build connections with peers.

About the program

The program was a profound week-long, life-enrichment retreat tailored for girls with exceptional yet undiscovered talents. The girls lived during this program in a nature lodge, attended a leadership course, enjoyed physical activities, cooked together and participated in friendly competitions and cultural experiences.

Girls lived in a nature lodge & attended a leadership course

The teen version of the content helped raise the youth's self-awareness, taught them how to manage their thinking, actions, emotions and applied personal leadership principles to the tough choices they faced every day. The participants were without their mobile phones for a majority of the program which ensured the absence of digital distractions and their full commitment to the learning process.

Program structure & objectives

The ‘Summer Leadership Retreat’ structure was divided into four core areas: workshop sessions, designed extracurricular activities such as aqua trekking or cooking challenges, city and cultural exploration and, finally, free time where youth designed their own experiences.

Within this structure, key development areas essential to the youth’s work toward blossoming into their authentic leadership style were tackled. Transforming these broad areas into achievable objectives involves setting specific, measurable, actionable, relevant and time-bound goals that were infused throughout the program.

Supporting youth is an important pillar in KIPCO’s social strategy

Program evaluation

Measuring the impact of the program involves evaluating various factors that contribute to the overall effectiveness of the leadership training experience. These factors ranged from the youth’s level of engagement in the workshop, the practical applications of their lessons learned and skill development during the extracurricular challenges, to emotional well-being and social engagement. The methods used to make those evaluations included anonymous feedback by the youth, observation of chaperones and trainers, pre- and post-trip surveys, reflection sessions and monitoring the development of youth after the program.

KIPCO representation

Assistant Manager for CorpComms & IR, Ms. Sumayah Al Mulla, represented KIPCO in this retreat and was one of the chaperones of the trip. She said, “Supporting youth has always been an important pillar in KIPCO’s social outreach program, and the ‘Summer Leadership Retreat’ is yet another investment in helping create Kuwait’s leaders of tomorrow. We are especially proud to be partnering with LOYAC on this initiative to provide a program that is dedicated to teenage girls and helps empower them into becoming stronger versions of themselves.”