Innovation and Insight: the Civic Leadership Institute in Boston
The First CLI Bringing Boston's progressive leaders together is no easy task; finding common ground among them is even tougher. But that's exactly what's begun to happen since the CLU Civic Leadership Institute began in March 2006 on the campus of UMass-Boston. Organized under the auspices of Community Labor United (CLU), Boston's institute consisted of seven, three hour long sessions conducted over a 3 month period.
Participants were invited to attend based on nominations from CLU's coalition partners that span from community-based organizations to labor unions. Executive directors, elected presidents of local unions, organizing directors, key staff, key grassroots leaders and Board members were invited from organizations such as:
Over the course of 7 sessions, leaders began to share insights, experiences and goals in the context of discussing common trends in the regional economy such as rising housing prices, underperforming schools and transportation services, the creation of low-wage, no-benefits jobs, and the increasing inequality gap among communities of color.
Identifying and understanding a shared civic landscape also framed their discussions. Leaders shared their experience in dealing with complex lobbying and legislative processes within city government, and they also learned about critical issues in public finance as well as subsidies that impact the resources for their communities. Juan Leyton, Executive Director of City Life/Vida Urbana comments that, "With these trainings we are learning a lot of new things with each other and from each other. The long-term goal is not just these trainings, but in addition to trainings it is a long-term movement that is going to change things."
The CLI and Campaign Work "The small group discussions were fascinating, and the group seemed invigorated by their fellow participants," said Lisa Clauson, CLU Director, noting that the work of the institute is already leading to the formation of a broad coalition to respond to the crisis of unemployment among Boston youth. The Boston Public School campaign benefited from the participation of key coalition partners in the CLI by opening another space of dialog outside of the pressures of campaign demands. Through this space, key community organizations that had extensive experience working with out-of-school youth and key labor unions discussed the unique challenges and opportunities of a joint-campaign.
As research was done for each session of the CLI, these pieces were also integrated into CLU's research needs, resulting in CLU's first research report "The Hourglass Challenge: Creating a More Equitable Economy for Boston." As part of a class project, leaders from the housing, transportation, jobs and environmental sectors who were participating in the CLI were asked to review, correct and affirm the contents of the report. In the end, over 50 readers from the community, labor and academic sectors read and affirmed the content of this report.
Key outcomes and successes:
The Second CLI and Beyond
"There's no question about it. Our institute proved to be a strong success," says Clauson, "Our expectations for our second CLI in February 2007 are high. We see the ability to adapt this model to the strategic planning needs of our coalition as another reason we are committed to this program."
Comprised of members from CLU's community and labor partners, participants are now engaging in far-reaching discussions on issues ranging from public education, poverty and tax policy, to job creation strategies, and corporate accountability. They have begun an analysis of regional power structures and will develop a shared strategy for community economic development for their future work together.
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