Looking for leaders

Times Reporter    

 

Strathmore was selected as a lighthouse community earlier this year for the Becoming a Community Builder initiative. There are five three-week competency based components to the program. 

The youth and adult programs are running parallel, and each Friday a live web session is held with Ian Hill, developer of the content and founder of the Let Them Be Kids Foundation. 

Those involved in Becoming a Community Builder are able to join likeminded people at one of the gathering locations, or you can go on demand and watch that weeks session when you have time, even if it is in just 15 minutes intervals. 

“In today’s day and age people want to learn what they want to learn when they want to learn it and this learning platform that we’ve created does just that. It gives them the flexibility of a face-to-face interaction or on demand participation,” said Hill in an intro video. 

Some of the locations that show the weekly session are the Strathmore and District Chamber of Commerce, Rockyview Library, Strathmore Municipal Library when the meeting room is available, and Bow Bench Retreat. 

“What we really want is to generate that conversation between grass roots community members who are all seeking the same thing and that’s to build some leadership skills for themselves. Ultimately its so that they can contribute to the community whether it’s through being a better employee or being a better leader,” said Teri McKinnon, chair of the steering committee.

One challenge she said they are having is getting people to stay engaged and active participants. It can come across as a lot of work but really it’s not, said McKinnon; everything is available on demand three hours after a session airs and if you only have a few minutes a day to work on it then that’s all you need. 

Te Becoming a Community Builder initiative will wrap up at the end of January. Hill will return to Strathmore then and meet with everyone who has completed the program. 

“We’re hoping that we can get through this last session and then start January fresh with the last two competencies and then have a big celebration in February,” said McKinnon. 

The initiative will undergo a full evaluation with the University of Alberta. The results will then be used to guide other communities. 

“That’s another thing that’s exciting is one; we will be evaluated and criticized and have solid data on how it worked in this community,” said McKinnon.

“Two, we will be able to compare ourselves to other communities across Alberta to see what successes and barriers they had. Three, as a lighthouse community we own that web portal forever and so if we have changing leadership or another youth group or another business who wants to use it as a staff development tool it is available to them.”

There are currently 150 participants with some trickling in each week. Anyone interested can still join, but to be involved in the wrap-up celebrations you must complete all five competencies with everyone else. All you need to join up is a username and password. Everything else can be found on the portal. For more information, or to sign up go to www.register.becomingacommunitybuilder.ca.