Develop Your Leadership Skills and Make Your Community a Better Place!
Empower: Building Leaders, Strengthening Communities is a new initiative developed by Coalition for a Better Acre (CBA) and Lowell Alliance for Families and Neighborhoods (LAFN). We are seeking community activists and leaders, or potential leaders, interested in learning how to create positive change and improve the quality of life in their neighborhoods and communities.
Through an 8-week training program, Empower will provide participants with the knowledge, skills and resources to strengthen their capacity to create and lead change at the grassroots level. Workshop topics will include: Leadership and organizational skills, overview of Lowell’s history, how City Hall works and how to influence that process, communication and conflict management skills, understanding and leveraging community resources, organizing for change, and project planning and implementation. Participants will also have the opportunity to expand their personal and professional networks and work with activists from around the city.
We are looking for candidates who are committed to making Lowell a better place to live in, for themselves, their families, and their neighbors. Empower participants will have an opportunity to act on that commitment through planning and implementing a project designed to strengthen their community. Preference will be given to candidates already active in grassroots or informal groups, who are working to improve conditions in their neighborhoods, and/or who can identify and articulate community or neighborhood issues they want to impact. While Empower is open to all Lowell residents, we are especially interested in engaging residents of the Acre and Lower Highlands neighborhoods.
Program Goals: Upon completing the program, participants will be empowered to:
Organize people for positive outcomes
Use leadership concepts and skills to become more effective leaders and communicators
Leverage community assets and resources
Develop collaborative partnerships in pursuit of common goals
Improve and increase communication and understanding between low-income residents and mainstream leaders/people in power
Develop and implement effective community-building projects
Create positive change at a neighborhood or city-wide level
If you are selected for participation, you will be expected to:
Complete the 9 workshop course, plus at least 2 project-planning sessions.
Actively engage in the development and implementation of a community-building project.
Help create and lead change that will make your community a better place to live!
Empower workshops will take place Thursday evenings, 6 pm – 8 pm, on the following dates:
August 31
September 7, 14, 21, 28
October 5, 12, 19, 26
And at least two follow-up planning session, dates TBD.
If you are interested in participating or know someone who might be, please contact Nancy Coan at ncoan@ywcaoflowell.org, or Aurora Erickson at aurora.erickson@cbacre.org.
