Voice, Choice, Access, & Passion: Preparing the Centennial Generation for Leadership defines the Centennial Generation as individuals born after 1997 and outlines key themes about their diversity, technology, and social media tendencies, and ways to engage and prepare them for leadership. Authored with several leading colleagues, it was published by the nation’s largest youth development organization, The Boys & Girls Clubs of America, to guide the teen marketing, outreach, programming, and leadership development strategy of more than 4,000 club houses, serving nearly 4 million youth globally.

It highlights several key dynamics of Centennials and the importance of developing teen youth engagement strategies that focus on voice, choice, access and passion as ways to engage and empower Centennials with 21st century leadership skills and abilities that we define as: (1) Ideation and Problem Solving, (2) Leading and Following in Teams, (3) Communication, (4) Digital Literacy, and (5) Emotional Intelligence. It introduces concepts such as passion driven programming, and digital youth development as a way of connecting with mobile first digitally intuitive teens, along with teen brand ambassador programs to empower youth voice, and more.

It leverages the Integrated Leadership Development Framework (ILDF) designed with support from Disney, Toyota, the University of Phoenix, and Taco Bell, the leading sponsors of BGCA’s flagship leadership development program, the Youth of the Year Leadership Development Suite. Dr. Williams developed the framework during his early career in higher education and led the integration of the framework across BGCA’s youth development portfolio, to empower a new generation of diverse leaders globally.