Anytown Leadership Program

Anytown Leadership Program is a human relations organization dedicated to embracing, educating and empowering leaders to cultivate inclusive communities. We envision a just and equitable society that celebrates, appreciates and affirms all people. Our flagship model, ANYTOWN, is a nationally recognized, award winning leadership and social justice program for youth ages 14-19. Every year, we bring diverse groups of Arizona high school students together for a weeklong residential learning experience. Through interactive workshops, simulations and discussions, participants explore topics like prejudice, discrimination and bias. Anytown addresses widespread cultural competence gaps by educating young leaders about the value of diversity and inclusion and teaching participants to recognize and counter stereotypes, bias and bigotry. Our approach to creating change can be summed up in three words: understanding through sharing. Anytown is the only program of its kind, intentionally bringing together unlike teenagers with diverse beliefs and backgrounds to learn appropriate and effective methods of discussing difficult topics such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, classism, ableism and more. Anytown changes hearts and minds by bringing diverse people together to engage in respectful, productive dialogue – an essential step in moving past conflict and division. By advancing those conversations, we build and nurture empathy and understanding. Teens who experience Anytown Leadership Camp leave the program equipped with the tools to increase their ability to foster inclusion and respect among all members of society. We're developing leaders and we build stronger communities by facilitating camp residential programs, school programs and workplace diversity programs that educate individuals on inclusion, bias, and discrimination.