Community Leadership Programs

Over the past 25 years, the Blandin Community Leadership Program (BCLP) has provided community leadership training to upwards of 6,000 leaders in more than 250 Minnesota rural communities.

This nationally recognized program couples residential retreats with ongoing workshops to build participants’ competencies in three major areas:

• Framing opportunities and challenges that lead to effective action
• Building social capital for collaboration and resource sharing, and
• Mobilizing a critical mass of resources to achieve specific outcomes.

We also conduct programs around specific topics, including poverty and leadership in ethnically diverse communities.

For more information about all Blandin Foundation community leadership training programs, use the links at right.

How Can Your Community Participate in Leadership Training?

Blandin Foundation conducts leadership training only in communities (or groups of communities) that invite us in – it all starts with you and your community.

Step 1: Community application
A group of community members – from businesses, government, religious and educational instutitions, etc. – completes a community application from Blandin Foundation.

Step 2:  Community readiness discussion
Foundation staff meets with community leaders, in your community, to discuss two key questions:

• Why is this a good time for your community to participate in BCLP?
• What are two or three issues facing your community and how do you see BCLP training affecting those issues?

Step 3: Selection and Steering Committee
Foundation staff selects communities to participate in the eight-day program – a five-day intensive residential retreat and two follow-up workshops – based on your community’s expressed desire and readiness. We help form a local Steering Committee and select 24 emerging and established leaders who collectively reflect this profile:

• Actively involved in community life
• Credible and open-minded
• Open to risk-taking
• Passionate about their community's future
• Willing to work collaboratively to promote healthy community