CALA PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

CALA Provides mid level Community Action Professionals with personalized and dynamic leadership training. If you are eager to gain new skills to help you advance into a leadership role in your organization, CALA is the professional development program that is right for you.

Participant Selection & Application Process

Applicants must fill out a CALA application, provide an updated professional resume, 100-word paragraph explaining why he or she wants to participate in CALA, and obtain signatures from his/her agency's immediate supervisor and director in order to be eligible for acceptance
The deadline for applications is March 1st 2005.
You will be notified by mail shortly after this date about your acceptance status.

Estimated Costs

Tuition is $1,200 per participant, and each agency will also be responsible for their own participant's lodging, per diem, and mileage expenses. Tuition and travel expenses are allowable CSBG costs.

Meeting Frequency & Location

The program begins with a two-day retreat in March. Monthly classes will be held through January. A closing retreat and graduation ceremony will conclude the program in February.

Program Format

The Community Action Leadership Academy is designed to help Ohio Community Action's future leaders develop FIVE critical core competencies:

1. Vision

-Understanding Community Action history and vision
-Developing an organizational and community-wide vision

2. Self-Knowledge

-Developing a personal leadership style
-Acquiring management tools and tactics
-Working with a range of personalities and cultures

3. Communications

-Learning how to collaborate effectively
-Practicing personal and public speaking skills
-Reaching out to public officials and the media

4. Management for Results

-Crafting and fine-tuning a mission
-Creating organizational change
-Making effective decisions
-Understanding budgets and finances

5. Human Resource Skills

-Motivating and retaining employees
-Establishing performance criteria that support your  mission
-Operating a legal and ethical workplace

The CALA experience is hands-on and practical. Participants learn from proven community action leaders, faculty members from Ohio University and The Ohio State University, and professional trainers through a mix of interactive workshops, small group and team building exercises, lectures and site visits.
Each participant is required to complete a project during the 12 month curriculum period. This project should have "real-world" value to the participant's sponsoring community action agency.

Continuing Education Units

The participant elect to receive continuing education units (CEU's) from Ohio University for completion of the curriculum. Click here for further information.