ILOILO City – The Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP) approved an ordinance institutionalizing the Iloilo City Leadership Academy (ICLA) as the main platform of all youth programs, trainings, projects, and activities in this southern city.
“ICLA serves as an avenue to gather and develop the talents and skills of youth leaders, and ultimately aims to create a unified body of change-makers and like-minded individuals determined to act upon their social responsibility,” part of the ordinance read.
It also establishes a data bank of all essential and related reports and statistics about youth programs, trainings, projects, and activities.
Under the ordinance, it is the Iloilo City Youth Development Council that shall ensure the sustainability of this framework.
Three strands will compose the program — shaping leaders, Iloilo City Youth Congress, and Youth Laboratory.
Shaping leaders refers to youth trainings and activities that specialize on leadership, values and self-development.
The Iloilo City Youth Congress, on the other hand, is acommunity-based endeavor of the platform and its main focus is to develop barangay youth leaders. The implementation of this strand must be lead by the Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) city federation.
The Youth Laboratory, meanwhile, will serve as the core for facilitating and partnering with other youth and youth-serving groups in implementing youth training, program, or activities apart from official training programs offered in ICLA.
It shall stand also as a network composed of all registered youth organizations. This may also be referred to as the “Ilonggo Youth Lab.”
The ordinance also provides the creation of an ICLA Commission to be headed by the city mayor as director, SK federation president as vice director, and the city superintendent of schools, Liga ng mga Barangay president, City Sports Division Office, among others as members.
The powers and functions of the commission are to enforce the provision of the ordinance, to prescribe the rules of the training programs, have the full authority in deciding issues that may arise in the implementation of the ordinance, to advise and recommend detail reports and data to be collected by the secretariat, and among others.
The ordinance was authored by Councilor Julie Grace Baronda./PN
