Grassroots Leadership Development Program

The GLDP is a 10-week,interactive, bilateral government-oriented training for community community leaders and local public officials. The program is designed to bridge a widening gap in American society between citizens and the officials who have been elected or appointed to serve and/or represent them. A random survey that would ask respondents to name the 45 most influential elected and/or appointed officials in their community would find that few people could name more than 10. This GLDP will change that and enable community leaders to better understand how government works, who makes it work, and how to make it work more effectively and provide public officials the opportunity to understand how to better serve the Latino community. The 10-week curriculum includes three sessions on city government, three sessions on county government, three sessions on school government, and one session on financial literacy. Each session is for three hours, for a program total of 30 hours. A certificate of completion is presented to all community leaders who attended all 10 sessions at a social event held at the conclusion of the program.

Program Participants

Participating community leaders include white collar, blue collar, and no collar workers. Participating public officials include elected and appointed city, county, and school officials. This is not a lecture series nor does it have a lecture-type format. The program has a constructive dialogue format and is intended to be highly interactive, hence the recommended number of 20-25 participating community leaders. The total number of participating public officials may range from 30-45, depending on the curriculum and the size of the jurisdictions.

Program Benefits

The program is intended to benefit local officials just as much as community leaders. The program offers public officials the unique opportunity to make themselves better known to Hispanic community leaders, which is especially important for appointed officials who are more likely to work behind the scenes and be lesser known than elected officials who have to campaign for the position/office they hold. Hearing directly from community leaders about neglected issues and concerns or questionable policies and/or procedures important to the Hispanic community makes for better elected and appointed officials, enabling them to better serve all of their constituents. The program examines the qualifications and the roles the Mayor, the City Council, and department heads play in making local government work and discuss ways in which community leaders can take greater responsibility for the quality of their government. The school superintendent, the Board of Trustees, and department heads discuss their respective qualifications and roles in making local school government work and discuss ways in which community leaders can take greater responsibility for the quality of their schools. The county executive, county commissioners, county sheriff, county judge, and other elected officials as well as appointed officials and department heads discuss their respective qualifications and roles in making county government work and discuss ways in which community leaders can take greater responsibility for the quality of their government.

By knowing who is responsible for what in their city, county, and school governments and how the respective governmental entities work, and the qualifications required for each position, community leaders can become more involved as concerned citizens or even as candidates for elected or appointed office. When Hispanic community leaders learn more about how local government works, they will be more inclined to become the ones making local government work, as elected or appointed officials. That is why the first nine sessions are held in the chambers of the city council, the Board of Education, and the county board. Seeing themselves as public officials is essential to increasing the number of Hispanic elected and appointed officials. It is important for community leaders to begin seeing themselves as taxpayers to whom public officials are accountable just as much as it is important for public officials to see Hispanic community leaders as taxpayers and not as disinterested citizens. In order for Hispanic community leaders to be able to better serve the community, they need to know whom to hold accountable. Just as public officials can become better through this program by learning from Hispanic community leaders, Hispanic community leaders can become better citizens by learning from their public officials. In the end the Hispanic community is better served, as is the interest of local government.

Program Sessions

Sessions like these are important in any community, but they would be particularly important in any community where the misperception that Hispanics are not interested in what goes on in local government may exist. Nothing could be further from the truth. This program will improve the perception of public officials of the Hispanic community and improve the perception of Hispanic community leaders of local government and their elected and appointed officials.

The 10th session focuses on financial literacy, which can be offered on site or participants may opt to attend a financial literacy workshop conducted by Freddie Mac at the USHLI annual conference. USHLI has a partnership with Freddie Mac to offer the CreditSmart Espanol curriculum, which is designed to help participants develop life-long money management skills and understand the role of credit in achieving financial goals.

This program is highly recommended for communities in which the Hispanic community is under-served and under-represented, and its community leaders are under-utilized.