Program Highlights

The Leadership Evanston Signature Program is a dynamic year, filled with a variety of information, encounters, exercises, and discussions.  Highlights include:

• Presenters: During the 10-month program, participants meet with 70 to 80 individuals who are making things happen in Evanston.  Speakers include Evanston Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, the superintendents of school districts 65 and 202, and leaders in human services, business, and the arts.  Our conversations with leaders are in-depth, forthright, and thought provoking.
  
  
• Participants: Working with the other participants in the Leadership Evanston class is a key benefit of the program.  As one participant put it, “I thought I knew everyone in Evanston, but these people were all new to me and each of them is a fascinating person.”  Participants get to know one another and have the opportunity to share views, perceptions and feelings in a safe and respectful environment.
  
  
• Places: The program meets in ten different community spaces, helping to broaden participants’ view and knowledge of community resources. Locations vary each year but have included the Civic Center, the Ecology Center, Family Focus, Reba Place Activities Center, the ITEC Building, Evanston Hospital, ETHS, the Disrict 65 Hill Education Center, and many churches and synagogues.  This affords a unique opportunity to learn about what each location and organization has to offer Evanston.
  
  
• Participative exercises: The point of Leadership Evanston is not just to learn more about Evanston but also to learn more about one's responsibility as a citizen leader and techniques to be effective.  Over the year, participants engage in a variety of exercises that both help them work together but can be taken with them as a toolbox for continuing to work as stewards of the community.  Whether it’s creating an identity molecule to examine our own attitudes about diversity, balancing a hula hoop to reflect on group process and collaboration, engaging in a role-play exercise with police officers, or drawing an icon of our own community spaces, Leadership Evanston participants learn by doing and by having fun!