Mohawk Valley Community College and Leadership Mohawk Valley were awarded a $151,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties to create an innovative and high impact Center for Leadership Excellence to address the region’s need for effective, equipped, and engaged community leaders.

While existing leadership programs in the region have shown outstanding results, MVCC and LMV believe that there is still tremendous potential waiting to be unlocked in the community’s women, minorities, refugees, and other groups that are underrepresented in local leadership positions. The Center for Leadership Excellence will create one location for participants to learn skills to lead the region through new challenges and opportunities.

“This new partnership between Leadership Mohawk Valley and MVCC will allow us to maintain our 27-year-old core community leadership program, while developing new programs to serve the leadership development needs of the Mohawk Valley,” said LMV Director Ann Rushlo.

This project increases the impact of LMV, usually consisting of single cohort of fewer than 40, to a robust powerhouse of leadership training that will serve more than 150 individuals annually.

The Center will align existing LMV and MVCC campus activities as cornerstone programming while laying foundations for multiple new efforts to address community needs. Within the first four years, the Center will have eight strands of programming in operation, and would offer a Leadership Fellowship Certification for individuals who complete three of the eight programs.

The four existing programs include LMV’s flagship 10-month program, and MVCC’s internal Leadership Academy, Youth Leadership: Girls Soaring program, and Supervisor’s Institute.

New programs will include:

• The Neighborhood Leaders: designed to develop a pool of men and women from underrepresented populations with leadership capacity for addressing ongoing and emerging corporate and community issues.
• Board Leadership: designed to equip future and current board members with skills to grow organizations, and enhance effectiveness, decision-making, and navigation of unexpected opportunities and challenges without losing sight of strategic goals, mission, and vision of the organization.
• Political Pathway: designed to prepare individuals to run for office, seek higher office, or work on a campaign.
• Introduction to the Mohawk Valley: an invitation-only opportunity for community leaders who are new to the area to network with their peers, fast-tracking introductions and connectivity to the area.

“Every aspect of our community has the potential to benefit by growing the number of individuals who can embrace leadership roles,” said Alicia Dicks, president/CEO of The Community Foundation. “The Center of Excellence at MVCC creates a focal point for this leadership, strengthening the impact of existing programs, like LMV, and creating new opportunities to connect emerging and accomplished leaders to move the community forward in innovative ways.”

Creating this portfolio of programs, launching it, developing sponsorships to underwrite costs, and implementing a business model focused on self-sufficiency requires a staffing plan that goes above and beyond current LMV capacity. MVCC will provide extensive support services for the Center for Leadership Excellence including supporting costs of a coordinator for the Center, and helping to create and launch programs, develop sponsorships, and implementing a self-sufficient business model.