25 Leaders Earn “Certificates of Power” with LSNA

August, 2010

       Signs like “Justice for Youth” sprinkled the auditorium and tensions were high.  How would the official respond?

     The action was fake, but the energy was real. The 25 leaders who had participated in LSNA’s Leadership and Organizing Training used this last class to put together all that they had learned through the four Thursday evenings in July and August.  The representatives of the eight LSNA member organizations and three issue committees spent time discussing the topics of LSNA’s different styles of organizing, power, relational meetings, leadership development, creating and implementing an organizing strategy and then, putting it all together.

“I really liked talking in small groups,” said foreclosure outreach team member, Veronica Robles.  “I realized so many people have the same concerns I have and that together we can do something about them.”

Tim van Alstyne, from the Church of the Advent, agreed.  “It was a great opportunity to get to know people working for change in our neighborhood and to get more involved—I keep running into people I met through the training,” he said.  “It was fun to put together everything we learned to plan and carry out an action-

even though we didn’t have enough time!”

Having fun and meeting people were two themes that emerged as the best parts of the training.  McAuliffe parent and foreclosure outreach member Maria Escamilla loved the icebreakers played at the start of each class. 

“I think the games were very important because that’s how we built trust with each other—I loved being able to talk with others about the topics we were learning—like power and leadership development,” Escamilla commented.

The bilingual (English-Spanish) training was eight hours total.  For more information on the training series in October, contact Susan (773-384-4370, extension 16 or syanun@lsna.net). Space is limited so please sign up soon!