Youth Leadership Jacksonville (YLJ) is a six-month program that brings together a select cross-section of Northeast Florida high school sophomores from Baker, Clay, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns counties with demonstrated leadership abilities. Since 1989, Youth Leadership Jacksonville brings together more than 50 students each year. During this program, students attend an Opening and closing Retreat and four Program Days. YLJ focuses on specific facets of the community such as government, criminal justice, human services, arts and business.
Participants learn about the regions assets and issues through experiential, speaker-style and peer to peer learning. The program prepares them to become ethical leaders committed to active community involvement cultivating a lifelong interest to participate in the issues and opportunities facing Jacksonville.
Program Goals
Connect students from all areas of Northeast Florida and develop mutual trust and respect for each other.
Increase students awareness of our community’s needs, opportunities, problems and resources.
Gain a greater understanding of current issues through interaction and problem solving with peers, community leaders and decision makers.
Develop effective styles of leadership, communication and decision-making skills.
Strive to become a responsible, ethical leader committed to active community involvement.
Eligibility
Who Can Apply
- Attend an accredited high school in Duval, Clay, Baker, Nassau or St. Johns County.
- Apply as a freshman to participate in your sophomore year.
- Be approved by the high school principal.
- Demonstrate proven leadership ability in school and/or community activities.
- Have an interest in addressing the issues confronting Northeast Florida.
- Commit to full participation in the program.
- Be academically sound. An average of “B” or better is recommended.
- The program will require students to miss seven days of class (one per month).
Application Process and Timeline
Each high school manages their own application process, often run by the guidance department. Your school liaison will confirm your school’s process and deadlines. Please note, LJ will only accept applications from the accredited high school liaison – no direct applications are allowed.
- Each school can nominate up to 6 freshmen for consideration by the end of January. Students nominated by area high schools are then interviewed by a volunteer panel of community leaders. This volunteer panel then selects the finalists for the program.
- In February and March, up to 100 nominees will be invited to interview with a community leader panel. These selection interviews will take place over in a video interview Zoom or Teams.
- In April, the community volunteer led selection team will invite up to 55 students from across the region to participate.
- All applications will receive emails notifying them of the selection team’s decision by mid-April. Each high school will be limited to a maximum of up to six participants.
Program dates: August – February
Program Fee: Free for Participants
YLJ is generously supported by philanthropic contributions. To make a donation, click here.
Information for School Liaisons
Whether this is your first year, or you are a seasoned facilitator of this process, we have compiled some helpful tips and tricks to assist you in promoting and selecting your candidates. Thank you for facilitating this experience for your students!
Based on your feedback, we recommend running the application process over a two-month period including holiday breaks. This ensures students and references can be completed over the holiday breaks and long weekends. December and January have historically provided the best window of time to promote the opportunity and collect the full application materials.
Depending on the number of applications you receive, you may need to review and select school finalists. Some long-term partner schools choose to interview the candidates before finalizing their selection of candidates to move forward.
Your final selection applications of up to 6 candidates (3 female and 3 male) must be scanned and emailed to us by Friday, January 23, 2026.
Application, reference form, and promotional materials will soon be available below for download.
Questions?
Please email: [email protected].