Leadership Fort Wayne is preparing for our 27^th year! I can’t believe how fast this past year has gone.  As we get ready to welcome our newest cohort of community leaders we will continue to build on our past success and introduce a new emphasis on specific leadership skills to benefit each LFW participant personally and professionally. 

These changes are the direct result of discussions with our corporate sponsors, grantors, participants, board members and alumni who all agree that LFW is an important component of bringing about positive community change through leadership engagement and community service, but that it also must continue to provide relevant and useful programming for all stakeholders.  

As such we spent our summer vacation evaluating and researching the skills that will be must useful for LFW participants and their communities in the 21^st Century.

Please take a minute to review and if you are interested in participating in a personal assessment of these skills you are invited to contact Ellen or me.

Becoming 21^st Century Leader –

• Accountability to stakeholders & constituencies
• Trust Building: Ethics, Integrity, Humility
• Transformational Leadership vs Transactional Leadership

Visionary Leadership Skills (Being a Pioneer for Change) –

• Creating and communicating the vision
• Planning (Resources)  and goal setting
• Applying the vision (Implementation)

Critical Thinking and Decision Making Skills

• Anatomy of Decision Making
• Appreciative Inquiry
• Emotional Intelligence
• Problem Solving
• Collaboration Skills Group process techniques
• Team building and project management Negotiating, consensus and team management 

Conflict Management Skills -  

• What causes conflict? (Diversity, Experiences, Beliefs, Sensitivities)
• Listening, collaborating and yielding
• The leaders role In conflict resolution

 Communication and Connection Skills

• Clear articulation of issues, problems and viewpoint
• Storytelling
• Listening and giving feedback
• Networking

 Research and consultation with pother premier leadership development programs indicate that these are the skills that transcend both personally and professionally. It is a focus that is intended to provide rigorous and relevant information that will serve our leadership development participants well who in turn will serve our communities well in return. 

 For LFW Alums, as always you are invited to join us on any class day or for any presentation. All we ask is that you send us an e-mail or call to let us know what day you plan to attend. Mark your calendar to join us at the Fort Wayne Country Club on September 16, 2010 at 5:45 PM to welcome the LFW Class of 2011. (Be sure to RSVP to wilheljk@ipfw.edu  when you get your e-mail invitation. 

Enjoy these last few weeks of summer!

– Cheri Becker

Oh those lazy hazy days of summer! Rosie pictured here, is our rescued Golden Doodle. She is giving her best “lazy lake day, enjoying a cruise” in the boat look. However, here at LFW it is anything but lazy! All of our programs have held their graduation events and we extend our best wishes to all who participated and made this past program year so successful. We are especially grateful to our corporate sponsors, grantors, supporters and alumni contributors for making these programs possible. 

By the way it is through this support that we are able to offer program scholarships and all of our Youth Leadership Fort Wayne Programs free to all participants! Another not well publicized fact of YLFW and our Youth As Resources programming is that over the past 16 years there have been 208 Youth Community Service Projects completed with an investment in our community of over $200,000! These kids rock!

With the year coming to a close, we are wrapping up the year with reports to the board, corporate sponsors and grantors and getting ready to roll out our twenty-seventh year of community leadership development! Programmatically there are some subtle changes in the LFW adult program that will provide more skill development to participants. In addition we plan to introduce more detailed pre and post evaluations that will allow LFW to measure skill development and overall program impact more effectively.

Our LFW NINA program recently wrapped up the Emerging Leaders class with 21 one individuals completing the six-month program which utilized Peter C. Brinckerhoff, Mission-based Management book as the curriculum’s foundational guide. Participant s for the Emerging Leaders program are nominated for participation by their executive director. It was an honor to hear their success stories and learn why they were selected for participation during the graduation ceremony. Our non-profit community is in good hands, believe me.

Moving forward we continue to look for opportunities to keep our alums engaged, energized and involved! I personally believe that LFW Alums are or should be a strike-force for positive community change and engagement. By the way did you know that over 1,000 individuals have been through the signature LFW program and that over 700 of us live right here in Fort Wayne, Allen County and that virtually every board, committee and task force in our community is likely to have at least one LFW alumni serving on it? That’s good stuff! Thank you for your commitment and service to our community and to Leadership Fort Wayne.

I hope you will watch for more details on Alumni Programming in the coming months, but also would like to hear ideas from you. E-mail me at beckerc@ipfw.edu

Another reminder is to send notifications of your community involvement so we can share with the community and as always, alums are encouraged each year to refer individuals for the signature program. Applications are due by June 30, 2010!

This month we have chosen Eric Niebuhr, a member of the 2010 Class of Youth Leadership Fort Wayne, as our Alumni of the Month.  Eric will be a junior at Carroll High in the fall.  He volunteered to speak at the graduation ceremony for his leadership class and in that speech he told the audience about the major impact YLFW had made on his life.  We could have paraphrased his speech for you, but we thought asking him to tell his story in his own words would give you a better picture of that impact.  So here is Eric’s YLFW story:

“My experience at Youth Leadership Fort Wayne was one of the most memorable and inspirational programs that I have ever been in.  It is still a mystery to me what specific part of the program contributed the greatest to my experience and my inspiration that resulted from YLFW.  It could have been the great group of teenagers that somehow all turned out to be respectful and eager to absorb all the things that YLFW was trying teach us.  It could have been the variety of speakers that came and talked to us, the bonding that occurred while at the beginning retreat between all of the participants, or maybe it was the exposure to people and places in our community that were fighting so hard against poverty. 

I think about all the activities, people, and places.  Trying, futilely, to ascertain the secret to the sudden change in my direction, but then I realize that there really wasn’t one part that was more inspiring, or influential, to me.  The fact is, that all the opportunities that YLFW gave my peers and me, were a part of an amazing experience and if one part of that remarkable experience was taken away, then the experience wouldn’t have been the same at all.  YLFW really is a fantastic program and I encourage a lot the younger people I know, to ask about the program and try to become a part of it, because I know that it may change their life and they could end up making a huge difference in a community, just like I hope to do.

In summary, the program simply changed my future.  Before YLFW, I planned on just finishing high school with good grades, then graduating college and getting a job that would eventually allow me to live more than comfortably.  That was my life plan before YLFW, now it has changed drastically.  I have started a community service club at my school and I plan to both make a positive difference in people’s lives and hopefully instill a devotion to community service within my peers as well.  Then, I plan to go to college and get even more involved in community service, hopefully getting the chance to travel internationally to help third-world countries and make a difference.  YLFW has changed my life and my future.  It has successfully instilled in me a lifelong servitude toward others and I hope that it continues to do the same for others my age for years after I go to college and beyond.”

Youth Leadership Fort Wayne helps area youth develop leadership skills while providing insights to the many aspects of the greater Fort Wayne community. Through participation in the YLFW program high school students from all of the high schools in Allen County gain individual confidence, develop their leadership skills and learn about the impact their community service can have on the community.  All of our youth programs are supported by grants allowing Leadership Fort Wayne to offer these programs free to all participants.

Youth Leadership Fort Wayne, a community leadership development program for students from all area high schools, is proud to announce the YLFW graduating of its class of 2010:

McKenna Adams, Elmhurst High School

 Katelynne Baughman, Keystone Schools

 David Brewer, Wayne High School

 De Andre Davis, North Side High School

 Desiree Dickerson, North Side High School

 Andrew Dillion, Heritage Jr. Sr. High School

 Bethany Disher, Canterbury High School

 Mary Distler, Homestead High School

 Hannah Field, Leo Jr. Sr. High School

 Chris Frank, Concordia Lutheran High School

 Austin Friesen, Blackhawk Christian School

 Chandler Ganaway, New Haven High School

 Sarah Gibson, Cornerstone Prep School

 James Gilliom, Snider High School

 Madeline Harris, Bishop Dwenger High School

 Zac Haydock, Paul Harding High School

Madelynne Hostetler, Woodlan Jr.Sr. High School

 Andreya Kennerk, Bishop Luers High School

 Chelsea Lichtsinn, South Side High School

 Leslie Muldoon, Wayne High School

 James Myers, Bishop Dwenger High School

 Lindsey Nichols, Northrop High School

 Eric Niebuhr, Carroll High School

 Carly Park. Leo Jr. Sr. High School & Allen County 4-H

 Amie Patton, New Haven High School

 Taylor Rodriguez, Snider High School

 Blair Ruhr, Heritage Jr. Sr. High School & Cornerstone Youth Center

 Brittany Salay, Carroll High School & Girl Scouts of Northern Indiana-Michiana

 Hayley Rae Smith, Northrop High School

 Colin Walsh, Homestead High School

 Katelyn Williams, Carroll High School

Our Youth Leadership Fort Wayne students worked diligently on the morning of Saturday, April 17, to re-box canned goods donated to the Associated Churches food bank.  They cleared the way for the upcoming Postal Workers Food Drive.  Although there was doubt that all the tasks would be completed, our hard-working YLFW class reboxed every unboxed can in the warehouse in a little over two hours.   As they worked they enjoyed each other’s camaraderie and learned the meaning of giving back.  We commend them for a job well done.

On May 2, both our LEAD facilitators and our YLFW class attended a closing retreat where they reflected on their experiences throughout the year and celebrated their accomplishments.  The staff takes all their comments into consideration when preparing for the next year’s events, so the retreat is not only a reminder to our youth of what they have accomplished, but it is also an instrument for continually improving our programs. 

We said farewell to our YLFW class at their graduation held at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art on May 5.  But we hope they will continue with our programs in the roles of LEAD facilitators and as members of the YAR Grants Council.  All graduates may apply for either of these programs where they act as mentors to other high school and middle school students and make decisions on grant proposals submitted by youth through the Youth as Resources Grants. 

Our YLFW class just returned from a 2 day retreat at Camp Crosley.  The young people had a great time doing team building activities, high ropes and just hanging out and getting to know each other.  The group seemed to bond really well and many of them made comments about how amazing it was that they became so close so quicly.  We had 4 LEAD facilitators join us and they lead several of the evening activities.  The food was great, the cabins were warm, and the ULead instructors did an outstanding job.  Now we can all catch up on our sleep and get ready for our November program day at the Boys and Girls Club! 

See pictures of the retreat on the pictures section of this website or become a friend on our Youth Leadership Fort Wayne facebook page and see pictures there as well. 

Saturday was a great time with our wonderful new YLFW Class of 2010!  Both Clifford Clarke and Cheri Becker welcomed our newcomers and greeted our parents of these fantastic youth.  Our LEAD facilitators did an outstanding job leading the majority of the days activities.  Hula hoops, ball toss, agree disagree…you remember those activities, right?  Their retreat will take place this coming Sunday and Monday, October 18-19 at Camp Crosley.  We are looking forward to getting to know them better and know they will enjoy these, fun, busy and adventurous 2 days! 

Complete the Youth as Resource Grant Application, deadline January 31, 2009.  Applications can be mailed to Anne Duff, 2101 E. Coliseum Blvd., Fort Wayne, IN  46805, faxed to 260-481-4116 or emailed duffa@ipfw.edu .

YAR Application

Members of the LFW staff participated in the United Way Day of Caring on August 8.  They helped cover graffiti on garages in the Vincent Village neighborhood.