Guest Blogger: Heather McKissick, Leadership Austin
May 21st, 2009 - Posted by Heather McKissick - No Comments
OneStar Foundation: Texas Center for Social Impact is proud to welcome our first guest blogger, Leadership Austin’s Heather McKissick!
Leadership Austin ignites passion for community leadership for people of all interests and experience levels. Since 1979, our leadership development programs have helped thousands of individuals delve deeply into the critical issues and leadership skills required to keep our community thriving. Leadership Austin is a diverse, nonpartisan environment for vital dialogue, experiential learning and superior networking.
Our programs do three things:
- First, we explore what leaders need to know: critical community issues that are timely and relevant to current and future leaders, such as health care, housing, transportation, energy, poverty, conservation and many more. We know that to be good community leaders, we must be thoroughly and objectively informed.
- Next, we work on the how of leadership as we deepen the skills of our participants—skills focused on community leadership as opposed to business or management leadership skills. In some cases, they are interchangeable; but as many community-minded individuals know, the typical “business leadership” skills do not always translate into civic work. For example, in business, many of us have the authority to make change. In the community, we all have the same level of influence, so we have to rely more on influence without authority—an entirely different skill set indeed.
- Finally, we focus on the who that is so critical in community work. We facilitate relationships between leaders who, outside of Leadership Austin, may not have met one another by creating meaningful learning experiences and shared opportunities to serve together.
The Essential Class is the flagship program that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. We are proud of and grateful for the tireless community work done by our over 1500 alumni across the region.
Now, more than ever, it’s important to make sure that the nonprofit sector has a healthy representation in our programs going forward. That’s why we are so thrilled about our new partnership with OneStar Foundation, who—based on the availability of funding— have committed up to $15,000 in scholarship funds for selected Essential class applicants who are either employed by or board members of nonprofit organizations. This partnership will allow the nonprofit sector and those who support it to have just as much access to our programs as those in the private sector. This is a tremendous gift to our organization, our program participants and the communities of Central Texas. Investing in strong leadership for our future is one of the soundest investments any of us can make.
For more information about Leadership Austin programs, including information about the upcoming Essential Class recruiting activities happening right now, visit http://www.leadershipaustin.org.
Tags: Leadership·Leadership Austin·Leadership Development·Nonprofit Organizations·OneStar Foundation