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The strongest communities in America have a wealth of bright, creative and risk-taking leaders and they also often have a commitment to nurturing new leaders all the time. A group of SouthCoast leaders have just created a leadership institute that will help increase the number of leaders and visionaries in our community. Mary Lynn D. Lenz, president and chief executive officer of Slade's Ferry Bank, said one of her main reasons for helping to found Leadership SouthCoast is that she quickly noticed that too often the same dedicated people were called upon to lead a wide array of community organizations in this area. She understands that a community can not advance and attract new business and industry as well as educational and cultural endeavors if it does not have a deep and constantly expanding pool of leaders. Leadership SouthCoast is modeled after similar year-long leadership development programs that have been working now for decades in more than 200 communities across the country. Ms. Lenz is a graduate of the Buffalo leadership institute and James W. Litsey, a lawyer with Partridge Snow and Hahn in New Bedford and founder of the new institute, is a graduate of Leadership Rhode Island, a program that has been educating and connecting leaders in Rhode Island for 24 years. SouthCoast Leadership will choose its first class of participants this summer to begin the program in the fall. Class members will attend a retreat in September and then meet for a leadership program one working day a month until June. The goal of the program is to equip people with leadership skills and problem-solving skills to better tackle community issues and devise solutions. The program will be successful if its graduates become leaders for constructive change in this region. The founders of the program are looking for established as well as aspiring leaders to participate in the first class. They are seeking diversity among the applicants as well as people who work for public and private agencies, businesses and industries. One of the greatest benefits of this and other leadership institutes is the cross pollination of ideas that comes out of bringing together the leader of an community housing organization and the leader of a bank or the leader of a real estate company and the director of a symphony orchestra. The relationships formed in the institute will stimulate important partnerships that will help the entire community. This leadership institute will serve a crucial need in our region at a time when the SouthCoast must lead aggressively on several fronts. Our region must significantly raise the educational attainment of our children to enable them to participate in a rapidly changing economy. We must also create more jobs here with a future for all citizens. We must revitalize dilapidated neighborhoods, solve a drug and crime scourge and figure new ways to grow in our towns without destroying valuable natural resources. We urge the community's emerging leaders to consider applying or to urge a promising young leader to take part in Leadership SouthCoast. The applications are due on June 30. For more information contact Nancy Vanasse at 508-999-8778 or Dr. Tony Vieira at 508-999-8744. This story appeared on Page A16 of The Standard-Times on May 20, 2004. <=== back a page / back to top |