What if the leaders charged with improving local communities included previously disengaged and disenfranchised community members as well as those in positions of power? 

What if the solutions to local problems could be found by tapping local wisdom more creatively?

What if the voices of young people were given as much respect as the wisdom of the adults and elders?

What if community leadership was more about what WE can do together and less about what individual leaders might achieve?

The Community Learning Exchange (CLE) has observed that all of these scenarios are possible. Since 2008, we’ve helped communities across the

country move from imagining a better community toward creating one.  By providing community leaders with an opportunity to openly examine their challenges, freely exchange best practices, and become familiar with tools that can enhance local initiatives for change we’re gaining a reputation as a crucial network for communities in pursuit of a brighter future.  

Putting the “Community” Back in Leadership

At the CLE, we envision a world in which community challenges are addressed, not by individuals, but by groups of local residents working together for sustainable change in 21^st Century settings. Unlike conventional learning institutions, which may be grounded in traditional pedagogy and offer a curriculum delivered by credentialed experts and supported by academic texts, the CLE views communities and people as the new instructors and texts for learning. It encourages community change agents to share actions, practices, ideas and outcomes with one another in environments that respect and value local wisdom. It also encourages leaders to cross traditional boundaries to identify new, emerging or marginalized leaders and to include them in the process of moving from problems to possibility.

Celebrating the Wisdom of Place

The CLE hosts events throughout the year in partnership with community organizations that have successfully incorporated a sense of place, cultural pride and boundary crossing into significant social change.  The CLE gatherings are highly interactive and engage 35-50 participants over the course of three days.

Each CLE event is built around a central theme (e.g., education, immigration, racial equity, etc.), and is uniquely shaped by a local host organization in conjunction with the CLE national program directors. Participants are invited to bring a willingness to learn and share.  They are also encouraged to attend with at least one other member of their community, since collaboration is a fundamental part of the CLE experience.

Core Readings

The CLE utilizes two core readings that describe underlying concepts fundamental to the learning exchanges. 

• The Collective Leadership Framework: A Workbook for Cultivating and Sustaining Community Change.  Leads participants through process of creating collective leadership capable of working across boundaries.
• Gracious Space.  Describes how to create environments where boundary crossing work can take place.

Join the Network:

Be part of the conversation about where and how collective leadership is showing up in your community by joining the Community Learning Exchange social network.  You can share your stories, post news clips, videos, join groups and discussions, and stay up to date on future events.  www.clexchange.ning.com 

Upcoming CLEs:

• April 15-18, 2010--Collective Leadership and Systems Change: Examining Poverty, Interdependence and Policy Change.This learning exchange will help participants understand how systems interconnect to impact people, families, and communities. What can we do to change systems? Participants will utilize local narratives to reframe work on poverty and educational equity. They will develop relationships and shape collective action to move people out of poverty and change systems. This work will ultimately contribute to developing an agenda to impact local and state policy work. Hosted by La Union del Pueblo Enteros (LUPE) and Llano Grande Center and will be in Edcouch TX.
• July 8-11, 2010--Schools as hubs for serving the community: Authentically engaging educators, parents, and community organizations as partners in action research and change.  Helping parents and teachers engage in action research and partner as change agents utilizing education to promote equity.  Hosted by P.S. 24 in Brooklyn NY.
• Fall 2010 (exact date TBA)--Working with school systems: Cultivating leadership for parents and community leaders from immigrant, refugee and underserved communities.  Looking at how to build partnerships to serve 1st and 2nd generation immigrants and communities of color.  Learning how to connect with partners to gather the whole system at all levels.  Hosted by the Center for Ethical Leadership and a coalition of parent leadership groups in Seattle WA.
  

Past CLEs have been hosted by:

• Llano Grande Center for Research and Development (located in the borderlands of south Texas).  Spring 2008.  Focused on the use of youth adult partnership and digital storytelling to effect social change, particularly in the arenas of education and community development.
• Roca, Inc. (Massachusetts). Fall 2008.    Explored mobilizing young people and adults around immigration, advocacy and policy.  The peacemaking circle process was introduced as a way to promote collective leadership.

• Laguna Education Foundation (New Mexico). Winter 2009.  Explored how storytelling can be used to harness the power of language, history and culture toward building collective identity for community change work.

• Citizen Action Network of Western New York (an affiliate of the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York).  Aug. 6-9, 2009.  Explored ways to build strategies across race and class; forging relationships for social change. Click here for a brochure.

• Exploring ways to promote educational equity in rural and urban public education--Hosted by Migizi Communications (Minnesota) and New Paradigm Partners (Wisconsin) – October 21-24, 2009. 

Learn more

View the 15 page report with stories and details about the first 3 Community Learning Exchange events here.  If you are interested in participating in the CLE or hosting a session, contact us at:

Community Learning Exchange

Center for Ethical Leadership

1401 E. Jefferson St., Suite 505
Seattle, WA  98122

Tel:  206.328.3020

dnienow@ethicalleadership.org

The Community Learning Exchange is a program of the Center for Ethical Leadership, in partnership with communities across the United States.  Initial funding for the CLE is provided by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.  The CLE is built upon lessons learned in the Kellogg Foundation’s groundbreaking Leadership for Community Change program (KLCC), for which the Center for Ethical Leadership serves as a lead programming consultant.