James Resick

Leadership Shawano County is "a hands-on experience that challenges and informs citizens to become civic-minded leaders." It is sponsored by a community partnership (since 2000) that includes cooperatives, chambers of commerce, a Native American tribe, businesses, a school district, and county cooperative extension. Participants are chosen from the broad community by an application process. The program runs one full day per month through nine months. A typical session consists of presentations, tours and activities around an issue theme (e.g., community and economic development), plus a personal leadership skill (e.g., running effective meetings).

The purpose of LSC is to create a pool of citizens with broad knowledge of issues facing local communities. Goals for participants include: develop personal and interpersonal skills, be exposed to a broad range of issues, develop confidence as leaders, prepare for positions of influence, improve decision-making skills, and tap into countywide networks.

Target audiences include emerging business managers, agency staff, school district board and staff, tribal employees, cooperative professionals, nonprofit board members, elected officials, chamber members and civic volunteers. The age of participants has ranged from 19 to 60 years old.

LSC has produced several educational resources to support the program. It developed curricula that include experiential learning sets, and it wrote a guide to choosing and implementing community-based team projects. It created a logic model to aid end-of-year participant evaluations. The logic model will also guide a multi-class programmatic evaluation in 2004 that is expected to yield important insights for sharing with NACDEP.

Self-reported outcomes from LSC participants include increased confidence in personal leadership abilities, greater networking, and expanded awareness and understanding of county issues. LSC sponsors have noted a number of leadership posts taken by graduates. An unexpected outcome is that several participants have started or purchased businesses.