PROJECTS IN OUR COMMUNITY
Leadership Waterloo Region begins a new Community Leadership Development Program every September. Around 20 of our community’s emerging leaders will be working in teams of four to complete projects in our community for local organizations with a concentration on community issues that are in need of focused attention and leadership. The goal of the teams working on these Community Projects is to build awareness about the steps that need to be taken to solve civic problems, and to better understand the challenges faced by local Social Profit organizations. This process will inevitably expose the participants to issues of consensus building, public/private partnerships, diversity, board development, fundraising, and volunteerism—an understanding of which is integral to good civic leadership.
The Community Projects provide a learning opportunity for Leadership Waterloo Region participants but also aim to benefit the broader community. The initiatives should be important to the community and may involve bringing together various organizational sectors (public, private, government) to collaborate and problem solve. Following their Opening Workshop in September, Leadership Waterloo Region participants will work on their Community Projects over the course of the nine month program – until June. The Community Projects will receive approximately 40-50 hours of each participant’s attention, culminating with a presentation of results from each Community Project Team to all class members at the Closing Workshop in June.
Community Projects may be entrepreneurial in nature. Such projects could involve creative problem solving of a difficult issue or the launch of a civic initiative, using the Leadership Waterloo Region team to develop a strategy for instigating a new community or civic project.
In summary, a Community Project is a community-based initiative of importance that needs focused attention by a cross-sectoral team of leaders. The project should be well defined, with a specific request for engagement from a Leadership Waterloo Region team along with a targeted outcome for that engagement.