Institute of Attitudinal Change Managers (IACM)

One of the major problems bedeviling Nigeria's democratic development and nation building is the poor level of civic education. Civic education is a great tool for affecting people's belief, attitude, commitment, capabilities, towards the enthronement of effective leadership and responsible followership. 

However, in Nigeria, this is not exactly the case. Civic Education is still at the lowest ebb due to poor civic education and negative attitude by citizens towards civic responsibilities, because they lack knowledge about what it takes to build a nation or have lost faith in the system as a result of celebrated injustice.

As a panacea to curbing this anomaly, the LEAP project which is designed to target primary school pupils, secondary school students, youths in the community and market women, shall be trained, mentored, and made role models via the achievements of promoting awareness about their civic obligations, expose them to their roles in nation building, inculcating national  ethics, responsible citizenship, changing negative mindset and attitude, integrity and dignity of labor.

This project will enlightened the guardians of these underserved children of age 2 to 12 on the right way to handle the children. In return, this will help to bridge the learning gap of the underserved children. We believe so much in "Attitude Changes Everything"; hence, it will compel the guardians to treat the kids appropriately and help in instilling the right kind of mindset in them.

Just like building of a house, the builder will start from laying the foundation at which he will build upon. Hence, foundation is key in the life of every child. If the foundation is faulty, what can the adult do. Therefore, this project will help in building the accurate foundation for the underserved children so when they grow, they will not depart from that mindset/behavior.

Hence, this project will help bridge learning gap for those underserved children of age 2 to 12.

A Prior survey was conducted on the social challenges of the community affecting the children's mindset. Then, letters were sent to those communities/schools requesting for their permission to mentor the students and members of staff as a way of contributing our quota towards national development and they in-turn contact us on the feasible date and time for them. When the team gets there, they sensitize the children based on the survey's report. After the mentorship program, a club was established to monitor development. The name of the club is called Change Vanguard Club.This is being accomplished through the use of an arm of the Institute know as the Attitudinal Change Vanguard popularly known as "Change Vanguard".

1. Feedback will be gotten through the activities of monitoring and evaluation  by the evaluation manager who is always on ground in every program to report on the general performance of every programs and activities.

2. Post training assessment questionnaires completed by participants.

3. Facilitators report on responses and disposition of participants.

4. Periodic report by the Institute about the entire program.

https://www.iacm.org.ng

It is the desire of the Institute to curb the lackadaisical attitudes toward learning.

The creation of awareness through effective mobilization/campaign using radio, posters, flyers, social media about the civic education promotion and attitudinal change.

Inauguration of Change Vanguard Club in Primary, Secondary, Higher Institutions, Youth Organizations, Women groups, etc.

Quiz competition, questionnaires on civic education and attitudinal change, organization of training workshop will be used to drive the process.

This will bring about positive social change in the region through value re-orientation.

The project will help in curbing the lackadaisical attitudes of Children, Youths, Teachers and Parents towards learning. It will change their perspective of seeing education as unnecessary.

The main target of this project are primary school children, teenagers, youths and adolescents while those  who are indirectly affected are the government agencies, and political structure of the community. This will bring about the development of positive mindset and attitude toward civic education.

Poor level of civic education is ravaging the mid-west of the Nigerian State. The underserved children who are suppose to be encouraged to go to school are being discouraged by the older ones who are angry and bitter against the government and educational system of the country. The teachers who are meant to tutor the children are being lackadaisical about their duties. A large number of the youth are drop-out.

In a bid to curb this wrong mindset from spreading further and affect the younger minds, this project is a necessity.

The little children are a great benefactor of this project. The youth whose's mind have been bastardize will also benefit from this project. The teachers as well as the guardians or parents will benefit from this also.

The set of people who may likely not benefit are those who hate education of all sort or those who felt education should not be introduce to their children.

The behavior that needs to change is the mindset of seeing school as a scam or the ideology that education is not the backbone of any successful society.

In a bid to change such mindset, there will be a social campaign on how education is the backbone of any successful society.

The issue with the target society is that, they continue to blame the government for their predicament and never accept their responsibility. Hence, making them to keep running in one circle.

In reference to Nesta's Standards of Evidence's Level one,our Institute has been able to penetrate into some schools sensitizing the students as well as the staff on the need to have the right kind of attitude. Our Nigerian foundational level schools have been corrupted with immorality, cultism, embezzlement of fund, theft, money laundry, fraud and general sales of lawlessness and this is being promoted into becoming a norm. 

By way of our programs, we have been able to educate the younger mindset on the need to maintain the right attitude because we believed that this stage of their lives is the foundation of which they will build upon. 

The staff are not also left out and  we are able to encouraged them to live by example and train those kids beyond the academic realm. We admonished them to build the kids up into becoming a better leader of tomorrow as they are the generations we hope to bring the change we all desire.

At every institutions we went to, we established a Change Vanguard Club and appointed the Executive bodies right there and their counselor.

1. Through the activities of monitoring and evaluation by the evaluation manager who is always on ground in every program to report on the general performance of every program and activity.

2. One on One feedback of post training impact assessment from the participant.

3. Appointing some of the staffs as counselor to keep promoting the attitudinal change instilled in them.

4. Organizing training for the executives and counselors of each Change Vanguard Club once in a month.

5. Organizing Yearly General Retreat for all the Change Vanguard Club Members of each schools every first week of the month of February.

6. Periodical report by the Change Vanguard Coordinator on every Tuesdays.

Civic Education is one medium through which we can foster attitudinal change in our values.

The Institute of Attitudinal Change Managers believes so much in Attitude Changes Everything. Hence, the LEAP Project will help in propagating our theory of change of negative attitude as this gives us the opportunity of leveraging on the wider range of Nigerians at the same time and with the help of the social media, it will expand the impact and awareness to other states in Nigeria and outside Nigeria.

We seem to have tried all our possible best to ensure that the Institute effectively serve its purpose, yet, we are not getting the maximum response. We would love the LEAP Fellow to help in our research answering the question of what strategy can the Institute adopt to make it serve it mission effectively?

One major potential deliverables that would be useful to our organization as outputs of the LEAP Sprint is for one of the LEAP Fellow to deliver a research-based road-map for the international expansion of an in-service teacher professional development program and methodology.

The successful hosting of this project will elevate the Institute's recognition as well as wider acceptance. This will make educational institution to open their doors in receiving our mission which is to bring about a positive social change in our nation through value re-orientation a realistic one. The successful hosting of the LEAP Project will enable the Institute carry out its core values which are reliability, professionalism, commitment and dedication, honesty and transparency, entrepreneurial spirit, team spirit, quality and standard and persistence to a wider range of Nigerians at the same time.

It is the vision plan of the Institute to be the foremost professional body that trains managers across every profession who can effectively boost productivity and affect the society positively through attitudinal change and value re-orientation in the next 5-years and gain global recognition(and Relevance) with other organizations and foundations of like visions. It will increase the capacity level(Relevance) of the Institute and open more opportunities for affiliation with other international foundations. Hosting the LEAP Project will help in advancing our short, medium and long term goals.