Community leaders can be created and developed. You can learn how to find and develop leaders in your community by ordering the Community Leadership Workbook and CD.

     The Knoxville-Knox County Community Action Committee instituted a successful Community Leadership Project in 1986. They provide a training ground for low-income people and others who are interested in expanding their leadership abilities to help their communities.  Each year, 32 residents are selected. They attend monthly forums that develop their leadership skills and increase their understanding of the larger community. They learn how community involvement can help them achieve their personal and community goals. The Community Leadership Project produces and enhances effective leadership qualities. It increases their understanding of other agencies, policies and economic practices that affect low-income families. It stimulates visionary thinking.  It encourages people to act to invent their futures. 

The success of the Community Leadership Project in Knoxville-Knox County is impressive. Since 1986, hundreds of participants have refined their leadership skills through interaction with CAA staff, other community representatives, neighborhood people, city and county employees, media personnel, local businesses, and school officials. They have ridden in police cars, surveyed local schools, met with television anchor persons, toured service facilities, and learned about community financing.  They have reviewed principles and methods of leadership, and explored how to develop and apply their own leadership capabilities. The purposes of the Community Leadership Project are to:

   * develop 21^st Century Servant Leaders
   * train leaders to bring people together at the neighborhood level;
   * to identify issues of significance;
   * to lead a process of planning the needed solutions; and 
   * to initiate and carry out actions in pursuit of their solutions.

       You can create this capacity in your community. This is an inexpensive program to operate and it attracts a lot of positive media attention. The Community Leadership Development Workbook takes you through the steps of creating and managing this program. It has sample flyers, letters, press releases, forms, and agendas ready for you to use to produce leaders in your community.  (It also comes on a CD so you can easily edit the materials.)  

P.S.  This is the only leadership development program that is focused primarily on helping CAA’s expand their in-house ability to help low-income people become more effective ‘servant leaders.’