Train-the-Trainer Institute for Collaborative Leadership at Ripon College July 5-9, 2011

This week’s blog is a rather shameless promotion for an event sponsored by the Wisconsin Leadership Institute for teachers and youth leaders who want to learn how to facilitate our curriculum on collaborative leadership at the secondary-school level. It will happen on the Ripon College campus in Ripon, Wisconsin, from July 5 through July 9.

The purpose of this five-day Institute is to help facilitators and youth leaders understand the process for facilitating the Wisconsin Leadership Institute’s youth curriculum, as presented in Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership, by Laurie Frank, Carol Carlin, and Jack Christ. The Institute will prepare facilitators to offer workshops and programs to train others to use the curriculum. This Institute will be valuable for teachers, youth workers, camp counselors, and those who train people in youth development work. An understanding of adventure education, group facilitation, presentation, and processing of activities is desired.

Facilitators and youth leaders who participate in the Institute will:
· Develop an understanding of the underlying assumptions and concepts of collaborative leadership as presented in Leading Together: Foundations of Collaborative Leadership.
· Become familiar with the scope and sequence of the curriculum.
· Practice the experiential process as outlined in the curriculum.
· Share information with colleagues about collaborative leadership and facilitation techniques.
· Leave with an ability to provide workshops to those who are interested in developing collaborative leadership skills, values, and habits within youth groups and organizations.

To achieve these goals, participants will engage in the process, reflect upon their experience, and dialogue with each other to gain meaning and understanding. Participants will create their own personal action plan for applying the lessons of the Institute and sharing them with others. Completion of the workshop will entitle facilitators to conduct workshops with those who are interested in using the curriculum to its fullest extent. Graduate credits will be available for completion of the Institute.

Overview of the Agenda
Day 1: Introductions, orientation to the history and structure of the curriculum; foundational beliefs; collaborative leadership tasks.
Day 2: What is leadership?
Day 3: What is collaborative leadership?
Day 4: Participant presentations and feedback.
Day 5: Action planning and closing.

For questions about the Leading Together Institute, please call Laurie Frank
at (608) 251-2234 or email her at LSFrank@mac.com

To register for the Institute, please contact Dr. Jack Christ at Christj@ripon.edu

The $480 program fee includes room, board, and meals for the duration of the event. Three graduate credits are available through Viterbo University for an additional cost.