The Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) is a week-long residential personal development program for young people aged 18 to 25, which focuses on yourself, leadership and community. In Rotary District 9800, RYLA aims to:

• Give young people the chance to come together in a supportive environment to gain a better understanding of their own strengths and the unique qualities and abilities of others
• Provide an opportunity for young people to develop a network of resources to facilitate their roles and development
• Facilitate learning about teamwork, communication, motivation and to develop the leadership skills of young people through experiential workshops
• Create a greater awareness of social issues affecting young people and
• Demonstrate Rotary's commitment to young people.

"RYLA was such an eye opening experience. The friends gained and lessons learnt will stay with me forever"
"Within 24 hours, I knew I was in for a fantastic week"

In District 9800 RYLA is usually held in the first week of December. In 2014, RYLA will be held at Camp Oasis, Mount Evelyn - Sunday November 30th through Saturday December 6th. Application period extended until mid October.

In District 9800, RYLA is run by a team of young people, many of whom are past RYLA participants. There are two Co-directors who oversee the program, facilitators who support participants throughout the week by conducting focus groups where participants can discuss issues raised by the program and a management team who are responsible for cooking meals for everyone to enjoy. The team have all participated in training to equip them for their roles.

Everyone comes to RYLA hoping to gain different things. Sometimes these things are exactly what you gain from participating – other times, you learn something completely different, that you never expected. Everyone’s experience of RYLA is unique. What you can expect though, is to meet people from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, and to hear from a series of speakers, all with different perspectives on leadership, personal development and community.

Some speakers will challenge you and what you believe, but hopefully some will also connect with you, or inspire you.

RYLA assumes that 'leadership' is a diverse and varied concept and any one form or style of leadership is not seen as more important than any other.

Each RYLA candidate is sponsored by a Rotary Club from District 9800. The cost of sponsoring a candidate is used to pay for venue hire, speakers and catering throughout the program. The sponsoring Rotary Club is also responsible for transporting the participant to and from the camp. This means that it does not cost you anything to participate in the program. If you would like to participate, please contact Chris or Shanae and they will put you in touch with a Rotary Club in your local area.