Champions Road is a youth development service founded by master strategist, coach and author, Ben M. Bartlett. Its mission? To help youth excel at life and achieve big goals.

With Champions Road, Ben has taken the strategic leadership development programs he uses for coaching and consulting with CEOs and other business leaders.  And he has adapted them to youth development.

Then, Ben has combined these programs with more than 30 years working with youth in a variety of roles including outdoor adventure instructor, scout leader, fitness trainer, church youth leader, life skills mentor and championship-winning sports coach.

As a non-profit service, Champions Road operates thanks to generous business sponsorship, funding support from participating schools and sporting organisations, and private donors.

In terms of youth development, there are three core service streams, which are:

1. Youth Coaching and Mentoring
2. Youth Leader and Parent Education
3. Youth Advocacy

Youth Coaching and Mentoring

With youth coaching and mentoring, Champions Road focuses on the development of the Leadership Skill Set.  This is a cluster of six skills that are essential to improving personal and team performance, and achieving big goals.

The skill clusters comprise:

Relationship wealth skills – The ability to develop strong, healthy relationships with others.  It includes the ability to make good relationship selection decisions based on shared values.  And it involves the application of the relationship bank account model. Relationship wealth is built upon the principle that relationships are the currency of success.

Strategic communication – Linked closely with relationship wealth skills, strategic communication is the ability to communicate effectively in multiple ways across multiple communications channels.  Strategic commiunication skills including writing, public speaking, empathetic listening and using effective body language.

Mindset Performance  – The integrated performance of the three components of mindset, namely the personal values system, the brain system (including the higher-level cognitive skills known as executive functions), and personality traits.

Technical skills – The ability to perform the technical skills required to perform a role.  For instance, doctors, plumbers and builders learn and use technical skills that are specific to their occupations.

Physical fitness skills – Specifically refers to health and fitness including aerobic fitness, functional strength, nutrition, speed and agility.

As part of fitness Ben advocates drug-free, smoke-free and alcohol-free living, and practicing healthy nutrition habits that minimise junk food and drinks. And he discourage the consumption of products that impair one’s physical and mental well-being.

Also sport – especially team-based invasion type sports – is a great tool for developing personal leadership.  This is one reason why it is heavily used in Ben’s youth coaching work. When properly coached and managed, sport helps to produce superstar academic students. Sport helps to develop great doctors, teachers, plumbers, builders, lawyers, business owners, electricians – indeed all vocations, professions, trades and careers.

Strategic management.  Strategic management is the overarching leadership competency that ties in all other skills into a strategy which one develops and execute.  Strategic management is the #1 leadership and life skill.

There is a strong sport and fitness focus with our coaching as we believe sport is a great teaching tool and a powerful metaphor for life. 

Let’s be clear though. Champions Road is not about developing the next superstar rugby player, cricketer or footballer, so they can play professionally. After all, the fact is, only a small minority will get to that level.

Champions Road is about developing superstar problem solvers, creative thinkers, planners, leaders and team players.  It is about helping youth to be great teachers, doctors, builders, accountants or any other type of occupation they choose.  It is where youth learn how to be better friends, husbands, wives, partners, parents, citizens and positive contributors to society.

Youth Leader and Parent Education 

As well as developing youth, Champions Road supports parents in the life development process for their youth-aged sons and daughters. And it supports the broader network of caregivers and youth leaders who have roles in youth development.

This additional support comes in the form of youth leader education, counselling and coaching. And it includes advising school leaders such as principals, boards and teachers, as well as politicians with youth-focused portfolios.

Youth Advocacy

Champions Road is a passionate advocate for youth.  We believe that bad adults and poor adult decision making are the greatest barriers to effective youth development.  Accordingly, we advocate on behalf of youth to call out bad adult behavior and to make adults accountable for poor decisions and actions.

For enquiries about Champions Road, please email ben (at) benmbartlett.com