Promoting Leadership
On Wednesday June 12th we heard from Blandin Community Leadership Program recruiter Senja Morque. The Blandin Leadership program is the result of the Blandin Foundation, started in early 40’s by Charles Blandin, an employer in rural Northern Minnesota. The foundation has funded many worthy causes over the years, including Blandin beach, school band uniforms, and mostly educational grants. In the Mid 80’s it was decided to offer a leadership program for rural Minnesotans to give them the tools needed to become leaders in the rural communities where they live and work. Only 8 communities get to participate per year. Faribault has been in the que to participate for a couple of years. Now is our time, applications are due July 22nd.
Senja covered who should apply, and how. Each class is made up of 24 students. 12 men and 12 women 6 over 40 and 6 under 40 of each. The leadership training last over 6 months, and there is a one-week period when participants head to Sugar Lake Lodge in Grand Rapids Minnesota for the start of the program, following are three local workshops that last a day at a time. Participants should expect to dive into community leadership training, learning a new set of skills to make an impact in their community. Interpersonal communications, conflict management, building social capital, and working in small groups to name a few.
Everyone is encouraged to apply, whatever reason is holding you back from applying, set it aside and apply, if you are accepted to the program, you can have the hard conversation with yourself, or family or boss before you make the decision to participate or not. Assistance is available in many forms, so ask questions before you make a final decision on attending.
The application was handed out in a Blandin folder at our meeting, or can be found at https://blandinfoundation.tfaforms.net/4 if there are any questions about the process you can contact Becky Adams, Recruitment Manger at 218-327-8736 or at recruitment@blandinfoundation.org