Ezra J. Temko

Council,

I have placed on the agenda for our May 25 council meeting a conversation regarding building leadership.  This was one of four areas that the civic health study I completed identified as needing improvement; it received the lowest ratings of the fourteen areas of civic health I investigated.  Regarding the statement, “Overall, Newark is doing very well as it relates to building leadership.  This is a strong asset for the city, as opposed to needing immediate attention,” one member of council agreed, three neither agreed nor disagreed, and three disagreed.  University administrators answered, “I do not know” to most of the building leadership questions.  Building leadership was the only component that random citizens, on average, ranked as below a “Neither agree nor disagree.”

Building leadership is a vital part of a community’s ability to solve problems.  It encompasses having programs to develop and encourage emerging leaders.  It encompasses having leadership trainings that provide avenues for immediate applications of newly learned skills.  It encompasses having programs to develop new leaders that reflect the diversity of the community.

I would ask you to think about whether you think Newark could improve in its capacity to build community leadership.  I am interested in having a discussion about specific ways in which we could improve in this area.  In my research I came across three programs that deal directly with leadership building.  These include youth councils, neighborhood leadership institutes, and citizen academies.  If council agrees that these may be useful tools for our community, then these are programs I would like us to have staff look into further.  If you have other ideas on Tuesday to address this issue that we could discuss, I would like to do that as well.
There are four resources for you to take a look at prior to Monday’s meeting.

The first is an attachment.  It is an excerpt from my civic health paper and identifies both findings about the state of building leadership in Newark as well as a brief overview of youth councils, neighborhood leadership institutes, and citizen academies.  See Building Leadership Temko.pdf

The second is the National League of Cities website on youth councils.  There are a number of resources for more information on this page.  If the link does not work for you, you can copy and past the following URL into your browser:  http://www.nlc.org/IYEF/youthdevelopment/youth_participation/resources.aspx

The third is an attachment.  It is an academic article on citizen academies.  The article overviews citizen academies and provides three case studies of existing programs.  See citizen academies.pdf

The fourth is a list of links to the “About Us” page on various Neighborhood Leadership Institute programs.  This will give you more of a flavor for the intent, purpose, and scope of NLIs.
Pasadena, CA: http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/humanservices/Neighborhood_connections_PNLI.asp
Charlotte, NC - http://www.charmeck.org/Departments/Neighborhood+Dev/Sustain+Neighborhoods/Community+University/Home.htm
Los Angeles, CA - http://www.lacity.org/council/cd13/c13ne1ab.htm
Dayton, OH - http://www.cityofdayton.org/departments/pcd/cp/Pages/NLI.aspx
Chattanooga, TN - http://www.chattanooga.gov/Neighborhood_Services/86_4027.htm
Newport News, VA - http://www.nngov.com/children-youth-families/NLI
Houston, TX - http://www.houstontx.gov/planning/ComPlanning/ldrship.htm
Gwinnett County, NC (non-profit based) - http://www.gnli.org/Default.aspx?tabid=139
(Virginia) Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce - http://www.dpuway.org/nli/about.php
Cleveland, OH (non-profit based, grew out of a city&CDBG-funded Schools as Neighborhood Resources program) - http://www.neighborhoodleadership.org/programs/nlc

Thanks for your time in considering this.  Leadership development is both a long-term investment in improving the civic infrastructure of our community and improving our capacity to address opportunities and challenges as well as something that can show immediate positive results.

Best,
Ezra

Click on the following two links to download the associated files.

Building Leadership Temko

Citizen Academies