Community Leadership Development Research Articles

Empowering emerging leaders: a model public planning academy

Abstract Public planning academies are a form of community leadership development programming utilized by cities to increase community engagement. This article presents a case study of the Citizens Planning Institute in Philadelphia, in the US state of Pennsylvania, and documents the program’s outcomes using the Community Capitals Framework. The results highlight the capacities developed by participants and their community engagement post program. The findings contribute to understanding how public planning academies support emerging leaders with new knowledge and skills, and enhanced leadership traits (human capital) as well as social, political, and cultural capitals that enhance engagement.

From hero to humility: Critical approaches to teaching servant leadership.

Despite the growth of servant leadership research, current understandings of how to teach servant leadership are limited. Further, current approaches often reinforce heroic notions of servant leadership that do not adequately prepare learners to engage in leadership within their own lives. Against this backdrop, we integrate critical pedagogical approaches within servant leadership education. To do so, we outline several applications that focus on leader development, leadership development, and community leadership development as well as several critical considerations for educators.

Knowledge Management, Leadership, and Social Capital: Community Leadership and Sustainable Development in Terengganu, Malaysia

Knowledge Management, Leadership, and Social Capital: Community Leadership and Sustainable Development in Terengganu, Malaysia

DISABLED BUT DETERMINED: CHALLENGES FACED BY ENTREPRENEURS IN SELANGOR, MALAYSIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The year 2020 was a challenging year for the world and Malaysia particularly, as the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic became a health crisis that resulted in extreme measures to curb the spread of the virus. This study examined the challenges faced by disabled entrepreneurs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty of 51 disabled entrepreneurs who have successfully participated in the Selangor Youth Community Leadership Entrepreneurship Acceleration and Development (SAY LEAD) program with different types of disabilities, ages, marital statuses, educational levels, and types of business were recruited using purposive sampling. The inclusion criteria included being registered as a person with disability with the Malaysia Department of Social Welfare, was born in Selangor or currently living in Selangor for at least five years, aged from 18 to 40 years old, and applied for SAY LEAD program. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews enabling the interviewee to share personal experiences and perceptions on challenges in managing their business during the COVID-19 pandemic. The majority of participants were male (80%, n=16), aged between 31 and 35 years old (35%, n=7), single (65%, n=13), and physically disabled (60%, n=12). The transcripts of the interviews were subjected to thematic analysis. The emerging themes were that disabled entrepreneurs were restricted in their physical movement during Movement Control Order (MCO), have financial problems, and have health risks that needed them to reconcile between business and family commitments. The study suggests that the use of technology in doing business, attending online seminars and classes during the pandemic, and getting financial support from the government are the coping strategies to overcome the challenges faced by disabled entrepreneurs.

Fostering social justice leaders through the social action, leadership and transformation (SALT) model

Fostering social justice leaders through the social action, leadership and transformation (SALT) model

Aspiring physicians program: description and characterization of the support processes for an undergraduate pathway program to medicine

ABSTRACT Latinx physician rates are lower than non-Latinx white physicians. Many pathway programs to careers in medicine have been established for underrepresented students, yet few focus on premedical college education or undergraduate pathway programs, which marks a critical junction in the commitment to and preparation for application to medical school. Moreover, little is known about the program components which prepare and support learners. Framed by Swail’s Model for Persistence and Achievement, we characterize how a given program’s components impact support and growth for participating students. Using the process step of the Context, Input, Process, and Product evaluation model, we conducted focus groups at the end of the program, with four cohorts of student participants between 2019 and 2022. Focus groups identified strengths and limitations in content and delivery to improve program effectiveness and plan for the future of a program. We used thematic analysis, following an inductive approach, to analyze data from transcribed focus groups. A total of 66 of 81 (81.5%) students participated in focus groups. Students described that supportive program components include long-term mentorship and advising that builds trust, academic preparation for medical school, early exposure to clinical career exploration, tools to articulate students’ personal narrative, methods to recognize and address challenging situations in the professional environment, community leadership development, and leveraging health policy and advocacy to empower students to create systems change within communities. Our findings affirm and provide a needed account of program components known to be contributors to student success in undergraduate pathway programs. Our evaluation also characterizes additional supportive processes not discussed elsewhere. Our findings contribute to knowledge about development and implementation of undergraduate pathway programs and the components by which these programs create opportunities for success among underrepresented students aspiring to careers in medicine.

Pathways to community leadership: Transitions, turning points, and generational continuity

Community engagement has a range of positive individual and societal implications. Gaps remain, however, in understanding the events, relationships, and contexts that set some on a path toward community leadership while many others remain less engaged. This article distills insights from qualitative analysis of 52 in-depth interviews with community leaders from around the United States. We examine the experiences that community leaders perceive to be most influential to their development, identifying three distinct developmental pathways among community leaders: early socialization experiences, gradual life transitions, and catalytic turning points. Analysis of these three categories of narratives suggests strategies to support community leadership development among individuals with different types of initiating experiences.

Nonprofit Board Membership: A Novel Mechanism for Authentic Community Engagement and Leadership Development for Resident Physicians.

Many residency programs have increased curriculum emphasis on the social determinants of health in recent years, and genuine longitudinal experiences for community engagement can be rare and challenging to design. The pediatric residency program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh has its separate Pediatric Advocacy-Leadership-Service (PALS) program track with 6 total residents across all trainee levels in a given academic year. Since 2011, the PALS program's mission is to train residents to be outstanding primary care pediatricians with the knowledge and skills to provide effective health care, leadership, and advocacy on behalf of children and families in medically underserved communities. This specific training is accomplished through multiple elements in the spirit of the acronym. Authentic leadership training, beyond personality profiles and suggested readings, is exceptionally difficult to provide. The PALS program provides the following unique training opportunity to meet this need.Enabling authentic community engagement while simultaneously offering robust leadership development, the PALS program facilitates each resident to be a member on the board of directors of a local nonprofit organization during residency training. This pairing is done with individual attention to each resident's interests and the community organization's vision and values. First-year PALS residents are asked to critically reflect on personal strengths, goals, and areas of growth. Local community pediatrician and public health leader, Dr Amy Nevin, has years of experience with grassroots community health networks to coordinate “the match” between each nonprofit organization and resident. To enable junior residents to contribute meaningfully as board members, she and the PALS third-year residents provide specific mentorship and are in communication with various local nonprofits gauging specific organization needs. First, an interview is completed, and the nonprofit leadership decides whether the resident physician is their desired board member candidate. If all parties are interested in proceeding, clear expectations are outlined upfront. For example, residents are never expected to make large personal financial donations to the organization. Residents are transparent regarding their rigorous clinical schedules. Nonprofit organizations provide board meeting times to the residents and share reasonable attendance expectations. Residents then provide board meeting times in advance to residency program leadership for accommodations when possible. The timeline varies per each pairing but is finalized by the end of intern year at the latest to provide at least 2 full years of active nonprofit board membership.The resident nonprofit board membership experience has been an empowering community opportunity with mutual benefits for both local nonprofits and residents. Several residents have cited their nonprofit board role as one of their most rewarding experiences of residency. Many residents invited their community partners to visit the hospital for guest lectures during teaching conferences. Community nonprofits have utilized resident perspectives, often the only medical voice on many boards, on numerous occasions including navigating the COVID-19 pandemic. The list of participating nonprofit organizations (Table) has grown even as some partners actively seek a new resident board member as graduating ones complete their residency programs. Most residents had never previously held board responsibilities, and this leadership opportunity intends to serve all graduates as future community health leaders in their careers. Further investigation is needed longitudinally to survey graduates and community partners of this experience to understand its long-term career impact.

“To be one with others”: exploring the development of community leadership in the Rural Philippines

ABSTRACT Local leadership is increasingly recognised as essential to community-led development interventions. This exploratory qualitative study considers how such community leadership develops within rural Filipino communities. Informed by current definitions of community leadership, Leadership-as-Practice literature, and nine individuals’ experiences, emerging themes denote practices of capacity development, personal change, and relationship building as most significant to community leadership development. These practices happen within the context of collective action, and activities related to the identification and critical analysis of shared challenges; accessing resources communities need to address their identified challenges; management of locally owned projects; and structuring of local groups into formal organisations.

ASSESSING THE IMPACT AND EFFECTIVENESS OF A COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM ON BLACK LEADERS

Community leaders working in Black communities are faced with countless challenges yet require unique skills for which evidence-based training is often limited or difficult to find. The current study employed a mixed- methods approach using archival data to evaluate a promising and much needed neighborhood leadership program for Black community leaders, the Bunting Neighborhood Leadership Program. The three primary foci of the program were to examine who were selected as fellows, the goals fellows presented with upon entering the program, and the primary outcomes following immediate program completion and follow-up. Nineteen fellows have matriculated through the program, and all completed pre- and post-surveys, and were each contacted about current awards and other leadership successes. Additionally, seven fellows were interviewed about their experiences with and outcomes following the program. Surveys demonstrated important gains in knowledge and skill development for fellows. Following participation, many fellows developed their own organizations, and some secured funding and received awards for their community leadership work. Three key themes emerged from coded interviews, namely (1) characteristics of those who seek a community leadership training, (2) successes in community impact and activities observed among fellows following program completion, and (3) skills-based outcomes for fellows following program completion. The COVID-19 pandemic and killings of Black civilians by police also impacted participants’ responses. The role of blackness in Black community leadership was observed across themes that emerged. Overall, this is a promising community leadership program with important implications for leaders who serve Black communities.

The Digital Equity Leadership Lab (DELL)

This paper presents the Digital Equity Leadership Lab in Baltimore, Maryland as a case study of community leadership development to promote digital equity and justice. While several studies of community leadership development exist, few are focused on its role in promoting digital equity and justice. This case study attempts to address this gap in the scholarly literature through the following research question: How might DELL serve as a community-based leadership training model to develop the next wave of digital equity leaders? Through our analysis of interviews with community leaders, outside experts, and community foundation staff, we discovered the following three main findings: (1) bringing national policymakers and advocates together with community leaders is powerful and transformative; (2) digital inequality is a social, not a technological problem; and (3) community leaders need access to a shared platform and to each other to create change. These findings suggest that community leaders can benefit from seeing their work within a digital equity ecosystems framework, which calls attention to the importance the interactions that exist among individuals, populations, communities, and their broader sociotechnical environments that all shape the work to promote more equitable access to technology and social and racial justice. This case study report concludes with recommendations for community leaders, including community foundations, working to uncover systemic discrimination shaping digital inequality today to advance digital equity and justice.

Community college faculty connections with geoscience societies: Community engagement and leadership development

AbstractThis chapter addresses the engagement of geoscience societies with community college faculty, traces the emergence of the Geo2YC Division as a model for others, and provides examples that focus on ways to build a professional community.

Model of Community Leadership Development of Local Fishing Villages in The Central Region

The objectives of the research were to (1) study the community leadership components of local fishing villages in the Central Region, (2) create the model of community leadership development of local fishing villages in the Central Region, and (3) assess the model of community leadership development of local fishing villages in the Central Region by applying the Mix Methods Research with in-depth interviews of 15 local experts and Sampling Survey from 400 residents of local fishing villages. The research analyzed and synthesized the data with statistical data analysis methods i.e. Exploratory Factor Analysis—EFA, and used Descriptive Statistics such as Mean— x, Standard Deviation—SD, to assess the adequacy and practicability of the model. The results of the research were as follows: 1. There are 6 areas of the community leadership components of local fishing villages in the Central Region including (1) behavior and management of community leader for building workplace relationship, (2) confidence and trust building, (3) creativity and ability to solve the community’s problems, (4) fair, transparent, and honest management of the human resource, work, and community, (5) creation of community leader’s credible image, and (6) the governance that corresponds with community’s goals. 2. The model of community leadership development of local fishing villages in the Central Region, conclusion, is that the leaders must develop the leadership in these areas including (1) development on behavior and management of community leader for building workplace relationship, (2) development on confidence and trust building, (3) development on creativity and ability to solve the community’s problems, (4) development on fair, transparent, and honest management of the human resource, work, and community, (5) development on the creation of community leader’s credible image, and (6) development on governance that corresponds with community’s goals. 3. The assessment of the model of community leadership development of local fishing villages in the Central Region found that the overall model is adequate and practical for developing the community leadership of local fishing villages in the Central Region the most.

East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine.

East Tennessee State University James H. Quillen College of Medicine.

RE-IMAGINING COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN THE POST-INDUSTRIAL ERA

The challenges of the 21st century, post-industrial society are increasingly complex. They will not be solved by the actions of individual, “heroic” leaders; instead, they require the participation of diverse stakeholders in order to make progress. Through a discussion of the evolution of leadership theory, we demonstrate that theories emerging from a post-industrial paradigm highlight the collective dimensions of leadership in contrast to the leader-centric theories of the Industrial Era. We draw from this literature to problematize the leader-centric nature of community leadership programs in the United States by specifically examining their sponsorship, content, and structure. Finally, we offer a vision for how to re-imagine community leadership programs so that they are more responsive to the complexity of the 21st century by drawing upon collective leadership and postmodern curriculum theory.

The role of HRD in university – community partnership

Purpose This paper aims to identify ways by which the core functions of human resource development HRD can be used to enhance the university–community partnership (UCP) in lieu of the “town and gown” era. Furthermore, the paper addresses the need to extend HRD activities beyond the organization and leverage HRD to spearhead the community-development agenda through coalition building between organizations, local universities and the community. Design/methodology/approach Literature on UCP is reviewed and analyzed, and the need to extend HRD focus beyond the organization to include community development through coalition building is discussed. A single-case descriptive analysis to illustrate the critical role of human resource and leadership development in UCP is done. Findings HRD’s interest in the UCP drive is negligible. UCP presents a new frontier for HRD research and practice because there is both public and private funding that can be assessed through the right contacts and networks. Originality/value The need for UCP has been a subject of discussion among scholars for time immemorial. However, the collapse of the “town and gown” era has inspired greater interest in UCP. HRD scholars and practitioners can leverage the expertise in applying andragogy principles, the focus on the adult learner and community leadership development to play a crucial in the UCP drive.

The child survival impact of the Ghana Essential Health Interventions Program: A health systems strengthening plausibility trial in Northern Ghana.

BackgroundThe Ghana Health Service in collaboration with partner institutions implemented a five-year primary health systems strengthening program known as the Ghana Essential Health Intervention Program (GEHIP). GEHIP was a plausibility trial implemented in an impoverished region of northern Ghana around the World Health Organizations (WHO) six pillars combined with community engagement, leadership development and grassroots political support, the program organized a program of training and action focused on strategies for saving newborn lives and community-engaged emergency referral services. This paper analyzes the effect of the GEHIP program on child survival.MethodsBirth history data assembled from baseline and endline surveys are used to assess the hazard of child mortality in GEHIP treatment and comparison areas prior to and after the start of treatment. Difference-in-differences (DiD) methods are used to compare mortality change over time among children exposed to GEHIP relative to children in the comparison area over the same time period. Models test the hypothesis that a package of systems strengthening activities improved childhood survival. Models adjusted for the potentially confounding effects of baseline differentials, secular mortality trends, household characteristics such as relative wealth and parental educational attainment, and geographic accessibility of clinical care.ResultsThe GEHIP combination of health systems strengthening activities reduced neonatal mortality by approximately one half (HR = 0.52, 95% CI = 0.28,0.98, p = 0.045). There was a null incremental effect of GEHIP on mortality of post-neonate infants (from 1 to 12 months old) (HR = 0.72; 95% CI = 0.30,1.79; p = 0.480) and post-infants (from 1 year to 5 years old) -(HR = 1.02; 95% CI = 0.55–1.90; p = 0.940). Age-specific analyses show that impact was concentrated among neonates. However, effect ratios for post-infancy were inefficiently assessed owing to extensive survival history censoring for the later months of childhood. Children were observed only rarely for periods over 40 months of age.ConclusionGEHIP results show that a comprehensive approach to newborn care is feasible, if care is augmented by community-based nurses. It supports the assertion that if appropriate mechanisms are put in place to enable the various pillars of the health system as espoused by WHO in rural impoverished settings where childhood mortality is high, it could lead to accelerated reductions in mortality thereby increasing survival of children. Policy implications of the pronounced neonatal effect of GEHIP merit national review for possible scale-up.

Building Engaged Communities—A Collaborative Leadership Approach

Community engagement is essential for building smart cities. While leaders who participate in community leadership development programs create engaged communities, there is a gap in literature on the role leadership programs play in the formation of engaged communities. This conceptual paper examines the relationship between collaborative leadership and leadership development programs in order and their role in fostering engaged communities. Recommendations for future research on building effective leadership programs are proposed.

Community Leadership Development: Perspectives of Graduates of a Low-Income Leadership Development Program on Family Relations

ABSTRACTDrawing mostly on qualitative data, this article explores how members of low-income communities experience and recognize changes in family relationships after participation in a community leadership program. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 55 program graduates and surveys were completed by 80 graduates. Content analysis and descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Qualitative findings suggest that although community leadership programs emphasize the enhancement of individual leadership skills, valuable secondary benefits on familial relations also occur. Quantitative analyses corroborated the perception of graduates on increased leadership development and the improvement in relational knowledge and skills.

Perceptions of Agricultural Leadership Academic Programs of 1862 Land-Grant Universities

This study characterized perceptions of agricultural leadership programs in colleges of agriculture, food, life, human, or environmental sciences at 1862 land-grant institutions. Objectives included describing the need for programs, studying evolution within the discipline, discussing faculty recommendations for future development, and examining why programs are relevant. Qualitative data were analyzed using thematic analysis, which included open and axial coding. A total of 26 academic agricultural leadership programs were identified, and a telephone interview was completed by 19 agricultural leadership faculty members. Results of the study indicated agricultural leadership was historically founded under the umbrella of agricultural and extension education but also evolved from a need in industry. The discipline evolved because the academic subject matter was broadly appealing to students and, and its growth was also spurred by the popularity of community and rural leadership development programs. To improve agricultural leadership programs, faculty surveyed recommended collaborative efforts across the discipline to establish a unified vision and a national professional organization. Throughout the interviews, themes emerged related to the relevancy of agricultural leadership programs in higher education: (1) The agricultural leadership discipline creates leaders through developing “human capital,” and (2) graduates promote industry growth through their political, policy, and public influence. Future recommendations for research included identifying perceptions of agricultural leadership beyond the scope of 1862 land-grant institutions.