Citizen Leaders Program
Imagine Chicago created Citizen Leaders in 1996 to encourage citizens to understand their community’s assets, imagine ways to improve their neighborhoods, and create valuable innovations. In a series of ten bi-weekly workshops, each citizen leader creates a low-cost, high impact community project including recruiting a team of volunteers, designing the project, writing a proposal, and documenting and sustaining their innovation.
The following are selected excerpts from the Citizen Leaders program guide, available in full at <www.imaginechicago.org>
WHO IS A CITIZEN LEADER?
Local community residents, of any age, with vision and commitment. These citizen leaders from Chicago neighborhoods come together in a shared learning process that helps them exchange ideas, encourage each other, and learn from one another, using a Community Innovation Guide framework of organizing questions designed by Imagine Chicago.
WHAT DO CITIZEN LEADERS DO?
1. Participate in a leadership development process that enables them to design and implement imaginative community projects. A citizen leader class can be city-wide or based in a single neighborhood.
2. Recruit and lead a local project team of at least six members.
3. Prepare a proposal for a community innovation.
4. Create the project with their team.
5. Document, publicize and sustain the project so as to inspire even greater participation and innovation in the community.
WHY do we need citizen leaders?
Locally organized citizen groups — including young people — can make a visible difference in their own community, in ways that experts, governments, and social services cannot. This program helps to increase asset-based leadership by community members and expand civic participation.
HOW does citizen leaders work ? A local "citizen leader" group has the chance to propose an imaginative project, which makes visible the core values and assets of the community, and which develops leadership and participation locally. The innovation can strengthen existing networks, such as a scout group or a parent club, or can generate new networks. The more an innovation builds on and strengthens already existing projects and structures which are working well, the better the project tends to work.
For example, a group of teens might organize a directory for their neighborhood, which would link young adults to positive programs and volunteer opportunities. Or an intergenerational team might create a community service or neighborhood history program out of their local community center. Citizen leaders submit proposals for community innovations that meet the following criteria:
· contribute to a positive community future.
· require creativity and commitment.
· leverage the human resources of the community.
· reinforce the involvement of members of the local community.
· increase the positive self-esteem of residents.
· will be sustained by members of the community.
· can lead to more innovations.
· give community members responsibility for the planning, implementation and evaluation of the project.
Citizen Leader projects are of value, not only to one community, but also to a larger network, as they expand the "bank" of working innovations that communities can use as inspiration for getting citizens involved.