It’s rare that someone is born with natural leadership skills that make standing up and leading a meeting a cinch for them.
The Neighborhood Leadership Institute recognizes this and provides free leadership skills training classes. The classes are designed to empower residents to be better leaders in their community and provide them with the tools and necessary information to get things done in their community, says Donna Dewesse, project specialist for the Department of Neighborhood Services and Community Development and the coordinator of the NLI.
The NLI is currently accepting applications for this year’s series of classes, to run through September on Monday nights, every other week. The pre-graduates of the program will then have their final projects on display at City Hall and graduate from the program in November.
“It’s about a five to six month prospect. You have to attend six out of seven classes, and so you really do have to have a commitment to going and seeing the program through,” Deweese says.
Class topics include how to hold effective meetings for neighborhood associations, conflict resolution, team building and project planning. One of the most popular classes is the Basic City Services for Neighborhoods. During these, individuals from different city departments are invited to speak about what their department does and whom to contact about various issues that a community needs done.
“It’s a good way to let people know the right department to contact to get something done so they are not calling 10 different people and getting passed around from person to person. The goal is for them to learn how to get things done in an efficient and timely manner,” Deweese says.
Neighborhood Associations that can utilize these lessons bring to their communities a sense of unity of people working together toward a common goal, Deweese says. They also set the boundaries of their neighborhood association, elect annual officers and bond a community together with annual picnics and the National Night Out event with the police department. There are approximately 115 registered neighborhood associations, and Deweese’s department works with almost every one to get things done in the city, she says.
Charlotte Freeman, a graduate of the program and president of the Stuart Heights Neighborhood Association, says she liked that the program allowed her to meet officials from city service offices and find out how to utilize their services in her community.
“That was really valuable to me because I was able to take that back directly to the neighborhood association, and when we need something, we know where to turn,” Freeman says.
Another past graduate, Jacqueline Dowelle, was asked to lead the Washington Hills Neighborhood Association, and turned to the NLI for the skills to effectively run the group. Dowelle says most of the people who wanted to be officers in her group didn’t have the skill set to direct the association, and neither did she.
“The NLI provided me with a solid understanding of the neighborhood’s community leadership and ideas on how to engage our community,” Dowelle says. “It identified needs in our community and ways in which I could handle those needs, and trained me to do effective meeting leaderships where I could provide agendas, not be nervous and turn meetings from complaint sessions into effective meetings with goals.”
Dowelle says she has also been able to pass the knowledge she gained on to others and groom them to replace her in a leadership position.
For Freeman’s final project, she dreamed of revitalizing her neighborhood, with a 10-year plan she composed in a booklet and with 3-D diorama to identify code violations residents could fix to make the community more beautiful, vibrant and safe. Since her project, the community has hired an off-duty policeman, which has reduced crime tremendously in the area. She has also taught residents how to recycle, who to call for brush pickup and how restoring their buildings and tackling the area kudzu would make the neighborhood better.
For Dowelle’s final project, she composed a booklet of what those who are putting together neighborhood associations need to know in the way of organization, training, ideas, bylaws and getting everything established.
Dowelle says, “You always need a leader behind you ready to go, and I feel this program is an excellent resource in providing the skill level for one to come behind you.”
Deweese says there’s no where else in town where someone can get this much beneficial information for free, and that the program is looking for all skill levels to apply.
“We have people who are novices up to people who are al-ready leading in the community, and we tailor the classes to meet everyone’s needs,” she says.
For an application or more information, visit the Neighborhood Services division on the www.chattanooga.gov Web page.