Mandel Center Now Accepting Applications for New Leaders' Links Programs
The Mandel Center is now accepting applications for new Leaders' Links groups that will begin meeting in fall 2004. Leaders' Links is a program designed for nonprofit executive directors by nonprofit executive directors that facilitates peer-to-peer learning among participants. Based upon similar, successful programs across the nation, each group or "Link" is comprised of seven to nine executives who meet monthly at a place and time convenient to all of the members.
The Mandel Center provides a facilitator who is specially trained to work with Leaders' Links participants. At each session, members are given time to discuss any matter they choose for group feedback and input. Members evaluate each session to ensure that individual and group needs are being met. Adjustments can then be made prior to the next meeting. The Leaders' Links groups generally run six to eight months. At the end of this period, participants may then join another group that is forming, continue within their original group, or suspend their participation in the program.
Success is attributed to the ability and flexibility for each group to determine its own goals for the group and individual participants, pace and desired outcomes. Executives who have participated in Leaders' Links report many benefits. For example, here is what some participants have said about the program:
Leaders' Links has provided me with a wonderful, supportive group of colleagues and the rare opportunity to interact with other experienced executive directors from across the non-profit sectors facing challenges similar to those I encounter. Together, and with the help of our very able trained facilitator, we have eagerly been sharing stories, exploring solutions and coping strategies, and helping one another to try to stay sane and on course. It is a great experience.
Pat Murphy, Executive Director,
Oberlin Heritage Center
Leaders' Link has been an invaluable professional resource for me. The opportunity to participate in a regular forum of my peers, in which the combined talent and wisdom of nonprofit leaders can be brought to bear on our individual challenges, has been extremely useful. There are few forums like it, and there need to be more.
Earl Pike, Executive Director,
AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland
The Mandel Center believes that Leaders' Links has the potential to be one of the most rewarding experiences of an executive director's career because it links participants to those who share similar challenges and experiences. To learn more about Leaders' Links, visit the Mandel Center's Leaders' Links Web Page or call Ann Lucas, Director of Professional Development Programs, at 216.368.5214.
