Friday, July 10, 2009

Community Leadership Application Deadline

Below is a guest column from Linda Linham, Executive Director of Community Leadership of Licking County:

Note: The deadline for the 2009-2010 program year is July 15.

Community Leadership Program May Hold Key to Building Bridges Across Sectors

NEWARK, OHIO – Building bridges does not have to cost a fortune. Licking County Chamber of Commerce is offering their long-standing Community Leadership program with some enhanced features. This year’s participants will experience a program focused on skills training for “building bridges” between sectors.

A partnership program of the Licking County Chamber of Commerce, C-TEC, COTC, and OSUN, the Community Leadership program will compliment efforts of community leaders as they strive to unite the community and focus on important issues.

“What ‘building bridges’ means for community leaders are faster and more direct ways to connect people, issues and solutions. Community oriented people who want to get involved to improve the community end up knowing the resources they can connect with, which increases the ability to be successful in civic engagement and addressing community issues,” said Linda Linham owner of Successful Ventures llc, a local management consulting company and incoming Executive Director of the Community Leadership Program.

Each year, individuals identified as having outstanding potential for community leadership development, are selected by sponsoring companies and organizations and offered a dynamic leadership experience.

Applications and inquiries are welcomed from anyone committed to creating a new network of informed and committed community action-takers. The selection committee chooses the class with a conscious effort to ensure that the group reflects a cultural, life experience, and gender balance between the profit, nonprofit, public and voluntary sectors to participate in a nine-month journey of discovery.

Another new component of the program is the use of DISC Behavioral and Communication Style Assessment Profiles. With the knowledge provided by DISC personality profile reports, people can be effectively coached in maximizing their strengths to achieve goals. The results of the DISC report can be applied to create increased productivity, personal development plans, and win-win situations for participants, their employers and civic organizations the participants choose to volunteer with.

“This program is about participants, from all sectors, committing one day per month, and getting a 360 degree perspective of Licking County people, places, issues and challenges with the added value of skill training,” said Cheri Hottinger, President of Licking County Chamber of Commerce. Training on the essential skills needed to ensure effectiveness of community leaders will be an important new component of the program this year.

The Community Leadership program strives to incorporate leadership development, community awareness, skill training and networking into the design of every program.
“We are taking special care to focus on the diverse backgrounds of participants for many reasons. It becomes a more powerful learning experience to work on a team that includes participants from the profit, nonprofit, public, and volunteer sectors. You learn how issues are viewed from different perspectives and you intensify the ability to provide solutions through collaboration. This provides a solid foundation for applying basic skills such as Appreciative Inquiry, Conflict Resolution and Negotiating to real community issues,” Linham explains.

The application deadline for this year’s program is July 15, 2009 with the next class beginning with a retreat on September 17, 2009. The class of 2009-2010 will represent the 28th Community Leadership Class. The Community Leadership program costs $550.

Interested participants or sponsors may request an application form by calling Executive Director Linda Linham at 740-344-1721 or the Licking County Chamber of Commerce at 740-345-9757.

For more information contact Linda Linham at 740-344-1721 or email Linda@successfulventuresllc.com.

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