Creating Your Vision

What is your vision for the campus and/or community?

Create a nonprofit organization that will provide leadership education in the community with a curriculum that targets youth. The program will provide basic personal, organizational, community, social, and responsible leadership skills to address the problems of student apathy, lack of civic participation, and lack of social awareness. In the future, the organization should be shaped to serve the personal growth of every participant through continuous leadership development. This growth could be supplemented through program referrals to leadership positions, scholarships based on leadership merit, and opportunities with other leadership/citizenship-based programs. It is to this end that we will empower students and citizens who possess responsibility with an informed voice while dealing with diversity with humanity, mutual respect and integrity.

Assessing Your Campus and Community

What campus/community problem does your blueprint address? What structures, practices and policies institutionalize the problem?

Leadership education is an emerging field of study that is starting to become popular on college campuses. Leadership education is provided by prestigious educational institutions, nonprofits for a specific cause, or community cultural centers. There has been recent research linking educational success to leadership education and suggesting that students with higher leadership/involvement experience tend to become more well-rounded and thus apply those skills in the classroom and real world.

Leadership programs usually consist of a series of workshops after which participants earn a non-credit certificate of completion. In addition, prestigious business schools are starting to offer graduate degrees in organizational leadership and behavior. High school graduates, for the most part, do not have access to these programs unless they attend those institutions.

Though there are community cultural centers that provide leadership education to members of their community, such as the Asian American Cultural Center, Armenian Cultural Center and so forth, when people graduate from these programs, their community is not merely composed of people of their culture, but rather, a multicultural community that is comprised of people of different cultures and different leadership styles who have different interests.

Some nonprofits provide leadership education and awareness around specific issues and connect participants with organizations that are at the forefront of the issue. There are also professional associations that provide leadership training and professional development for members of those associations. This is in addition to the thousands and millions of dollars corporations spend on professional development. Leadership development opportunities may not occur until students have established themselves within a profession or are aware of the issue to which the organization attempts to bring awareness.

Leadership education affects community members because it empowers them to have a sense of community awareness, self-esteem, confidence, and initiative. It affects people’s lives because responsible leadership further shapes people’s lives within their communities. It also promotes progressive leadership education for tomorrow’s youth. The change that these leaders bring will determine the course of this nation’s future. This training will also increase their social capital and build a sense of community awareness.

In creating a sustainable project that continually carries on, we would like to incorporate to prevent a “one-hit wonder” type of project. Incorporation would also aid us in expanding to greater and bigger projects that are built upon the philosophy of leadership development.

What communities will you work with?

• Local community
• Statewide community

Setting Goals and Deliverables

• Goal 1: Establish a sustainable, functional, and efficient NPO.
• File for incorporation; submit documents necessary; draft incorporation by-laws.
• Define a working budget and estimate a yearly operating expenditure (about $50,000-80,000 at least).
• Look for funding resources and apply for grants.
• Form a board of directors.
• Goal 2: Organize and plan for event with a developed program.
• Speak with schools involved to advertise the opportunity for the organization’s pilot program - DONE.
• Develop the leadership program.
• Create a marketing plan involving press releases, fliers and campus announcements, involving newspapers and other media outlets.
• Depending on working budget, look for a location for the event and coordinate refreshments for the participants.
• Goal 3: Increase organizational stability and program efficiency.
• Assess the effectiveness and impact, modify based on assessment, and make necessary adjustments to enhance program.
• Explore possibility of expanding and creating new programs for the organization to carry out. Includes expanding services, scope, and creating additions to the program. We can measure this by having at least 5 more people on board by the end of the program in helping run the organization, add at least one additional board member and increase the presence of the program on the web.
• By the end of the first pilot, we are looking to have reached out to about 20 participants from the college to pilot the program with at least 3/4 being plugged into the post-training program.
• Be reognized as an actual organization with a 501 c 3 status application pending with the Franchise Tax Board.

What is your primary approach? Leadership and Capacity Building

Why did you choose this approach?

This was the type of approach with which my team and I were most familiar. We felt that this was our strongest skill. We have had a lot of experience in leadership development and we wanted to use it and take it to a community level. I designed the organization to build people’s ability to and interest in fighting for social change beyond the issues of the events that we hold. We would like to empower people to be the change they want to see by getting involved. With self-motivation, we would like to increase student participation and decrease student apathy with a long-term solution.

What will your tactics and activities be?

Creating programs to plug participants in after the event. By plugging them in, they will be able to apply their knowledge in real life right away to prevent their motivation from dissipating as time passes by. Also, creating partnerships with other organizations and creating alliances with other NPOs. Empowering students to make a difference will be our main pitch.

Connecting Back to Vision

How does your strategy contribute to your vision for your campus and/or your community?

With a self-sufficient organization and projects that produce results, we will be able to further the progressive movement by producing leaders who are knowledgeable of their diverse community, their role in it, how they can make a difference, the importance of civic education, and how communitarian ideals can benefit others. It will improve involvement on campus and empower leaders to be diligent, responsible, resourceful, and ethical.

Resources and skills you will need

What skills do you need for this approach?

Lots of organizational skills, resourcefulness to find the resources available to us, patience and critical thinking to maximize utility despite limited resources, lots and lots of patience, media relations, community relations, and lots of leadership skills.