Kellogg Leadership for Community Change
In 2002, the Center for Ethical Leadership was selected by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to coordinate a new initiative called the Kellogg Leadership for Community Change (KLCC). This initiative marked a shift from focusing on the development of individuals. It sought to actively engage citizenry in community issues and change. The vision of KLCC was to develop diverse community leadership that can work across boundaries – geographic, racial, cultural, age, class, or faith – by mobilizing collective action to improve local conditions and the quality of life in their communities. Leadership, in this view, is not the purview of an individual leader, rather the collaboration of what leaders and followers do together for the common good.
The Center partnered with Institute for Educational Leadership and the Innovation Center to help communities in 11 states cultivate intergenerational leadership capable of improving teaching and learning and making their communities more just. The program was based on these core concepts:
- Place-based leadership: Valuing the power of place, culture and history.
- Crossing boundaries: Bringing together a full representation of the community to work together to move past barriers.
- Forming collective leadership: Helping the group understand and use their power as a collective force for sustaining change.
- Developing individual leadership: Helping individuals learn how to develop their own leadership that leads to collective action.
- Making change happen: Learning how to work together to build new relationships, create alliances and influence change.
The KLCC initiative has evolved into the national Community Learning Exchange. The CLE offers the power of a national network where communities share learning and support each other in the development of local collective leadership and community change.
