KCNC Accepting Applications for Leadership Training

KCNC Leadership Development Training Program Accepting Applications for an eighth year

The Kern County Network for Children is excited to announce that it will begin accepting applications for 2004 Leadership Development Training Program. We will begin accepting applications on September 2, 2003. Applications are due no later than November 10, 2003 at 5:00 p.m.

The Kern County Network for Children's (KCNC) Leadership Development Program emerged in 1997 and originated out of a desire to help those already in leadership positions in their neighborhoods or their organizations gain the skills to improve our communities. The focus of this six-month training program, which is of no charge to participants, is to train and nurture natural grassroots leaders in communities where they are already engaged in local collaborative groups and community mobilization efforts. The Leadership Development Training Program includes thirty-six (36) hours of instruction time in nine (9) subject areas including:

  • Powerful Public Speaking
  • Effective Time Management
  • Facilitating Effective Community and Organization Meetings
  • Strategic Planning for Communities and Organizations
  • Conflict Resolution Practice
  • Community Mobilization Techniques
  • Resource Development
  • Media and Marketing Relations
  • Legislative Advocacy: Moving Beyond Bureaucracy to Action

Goals of the Leadership Development Training Program are to educate participants by helping them to increase their understanding of both public issues and human relationships. To mobilize participants to lead effectively in areas of community health and well being, and to organize participants by assisting them to develop a network of allies and links to other citizen action groups with common interests and issues.

Leadership training participants also engage in planning, developing and implementing team projects in an effort to assist and benefit children and families in Kern County. Working with a small group of Leadership Development Program classmates, participants select and complete a class project. In addition to offering participants an opportunity to work closely with classmates towards a common goal, these projects also provide participants opportunities for community involvement. Time is scheduled during each class meeting for teams to plan and organize their projects. Throughout the six months of training and during the last class of the program, each team shares the results of the project with the rest of the class and discusses team strengths and challenges.

Examples of past team projects include:

  • Development of a guide to teen community resources in Kern County which includes informative phone numbers, web sites and pertinent contact information for agencies serving youth and adolescents to utilize. Project information was gathered and organized based on teen responses to what mattered to them most.

  • Development of informational booklets for children ages 0-13 in an effort to enable those who are working with children, such as child care providers, teachers, after school program staff and family advocates to learn more about the children and youth they serve.

  • A project entitled "H.A.T.S." (Helping Another to Succeed) involved a cross-mentoring and tutoring program designed to give high school teens an opportunity to tutor younger students in school and after school in diverse subject matters.

  • Development of a young adult's guide to housing employment, education and personal needs for youth exiting the foster care system.

  • Organization of "Mags 2 U Program" as part of a recycling effort to obtain free books and magazines to help promote literacy by dropping off these books and magazines in the waiting rooms of doctors offices, county social service departments and schools for children to enjoy.

  • Development of a "How to Read to your Child" brochure in English and Spanish designed to promote literacy.

  • An extensive improvement project at the Bethany Homeless Shelter’s Discovery Depot Daycare Center called " Operation Kids Play," unwritten by local businesses and included new trees, a garden, storage locker, an improved sand box, along with an animal park wall mural.

  • A video project entitled "Success in School=Success in Life" involving the videotaping of students throughout Kern County to promote the importance of learning and education, which will be utilized in schools and collaborative sites.

Each participant in the program is charged with taking what knowledge they have learned and tools gained back into their neighborhood, community or organization to make positive systems change for children and families, while seeking out new and upcoming grassroots leaders who will carry on the charge and plight of the communities they work and live in. Requirements for applying to participate in this program are that the nominee is committed to full participation in the program and he/she is actively working to improve their community or organization in local collaborative efforts.

Every effort is made to ensure that each class is diverse in ethnicity, geographical representation, age and experience, which is representative of Kern County as a whole. Over 300 hard working and enthusiastic individuals have graduated to date and continue actively lead our communities and organizations with the vision of improving and empowering all of Kern County.

Anyone interested in applying for or nominating someone to participate in this program should contact Debra Burris-Garofalo at (661) 631-5566, email degarofalo@kern.org, or click here to download a 2004 APPLICATION FORM

print:   email: