The Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City has a long history funding activities related to healthy eating, active living and tobacco use prevention. Over the years, HCF has shifted our focus of funding programs to funding more equitable efforts that mobilize communities to change their environments through policy and insitutional changes.
As part of this shift, HCF is committed to building community capacity to do healthy communities work focused on policy and system changes. One effort to build this capacity is the development of the Healthy Communities Leadership Academy (Leadership Academy).
Program Purpose
The Leadership Academy will develop a critical mass of change agents, local expertise, and field capacity to affect policy and community environment changes that result in improved health choices for the underserved. It also helps develop sustained relationships for strategic alignment and to further health equity.
Program Description
The Leadership Academy is a yearlong program for up to 15 individuals currently working on (or interested in working on) policy and community environment change related to healthy eating, active living and tobacco use prevention. Participants will represent the greater Kansas City area and focus on uninsured and underserved populations.
Although the focus of the program is on the individual, participants will be expected to bring what they learn back to their organization and community.
What You Can Expect
The Leadership Academy will help participants deepen their knowledge, understanding, and practice in the following three competency areas:
- Civic Leadership
- Healthy Communities Policy and System Change
- Community Collaboration
To the extent possible, information regarding promising and best practices in the healthy communities fields of healthy eating, active living and tobacco use prevention will be provided.
Once selected into the program, each participant will develop a learning plan that guides his or her learning in the three competency areas. This plan is a work in progress and will likely change over the life of the program. The plan provides participants with an opportunity to set goals and direct their learning from the beginning of the program.
The Leadership Academy will provide the following learning and networking opportunities:
- November 28, 2016 – Intro and Reception
- November 29 – December 1, 2016 – Workshop 1
- February 23 – 24, 2017 – Workshop 2
- April 20 – 21, 2017 – Workshop 3
- June 5, 2017 – Workshop 4
- June 22, 2017 – Graduation Ceremony
- Six small group action learning sessions
- Eight individual coaching sessions
Workshops
The program will begin with a reception dinner followed by a 3-day workshop. This workshop will lay the foundation of the entire program. Participants will engage with local and regional experts and have opportunities to develop and/or deepen relationships with each other.
The full group will come together at least three other times throughout the year, for a total of 5 additional days of workshops.
Action Learning Sessions
In addition to the workshops the participants will engage in action learning groups that will bring people together to gain knowledge, learn together, tackle real world issues, and reflect on their actions. Research shows that people learn best when they are working on real-world challenges and when they share feedback.
- Each participant will be part of a small action learning group that will meet a total of 6 times throughout the year.
- The action learning groups will focus on individual and collective capacity development.
- The small group will be a place that participants can explore and reflect how they bring their learning back to their organization and community.
Individual Coaching Sessions
Each participant will be paired with a civic leader in a thought provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their potential to exercise leadership in professional and civic life. Research shows that when individual coaching is added to leadership development programs, individuals deepen their learning and can more quickly put their learning into action.
- Participant will get an individual coach where they will focus on their own personal development related to making progress on system and policy change.
- Individual coaching will primarily focus on building civic leadership capacities in participants.
- Participants will get eight, 45-minute to 1-hour sessions over an 8-month period.
What Is Expected from Participants?
The following are the expectations of participants:
- PARTICIPATION IN ALL COMPONENTS OF THE LEADERSHIP ACADEMY, INCLUDING THE RECEPTION, WORKSHOPS, ACTION LEARNING TEAM MEETINGS, COACHING SESSIONS AND GRADUATION, IS REQUIRED. Exceptions or emergencies must be discussed with the Program Director, Gina Maree. Individuals and organizational leadership will need to make this commitment.
- Focus on healthy eating, active living and tobacco use prevention field work for uninsured and underserved populations.
- Committed to participate in the full program. Individuals and organizational leadership will need to make this commitment.
- Engage their organization in the learning.
- Scan their community environments, potential partners, and population they serve and explore ways to mobilize policy and environment change.
- Share their learning in their communities.
- Be willing to be mentors to future participants of this program.
How Participants will Benefit
- Improve their ability to create lasting change and impact.
- Inspire creativity and innovation in the community.
- Tap into and mobilize hidden potential.
- Experience group process approaches that are transferable in other settings.
- Enhanced civic leadership capacity and practice.
- Expand knowledge of promising and best practices in healthy communities field work.
- Develop lasting relationships in the community that can benefit collaborative work.
- Increase ability to leverage resources in the community.
How Organizations will Benefit
- Increase internal capacity for systems and policy change.
- Strengthen organizational partnerships.
- Increase capacity to leverage resources.
- Increase healthy communities field content knowledge expertise.
- Create a supportive environment where participants can explore potential organizational strategies and approaches.
Apply
We are not currently accepting applications. If you have questions, please contact Adriana Pecina at or Brenda Calvin at .