University Of Chicago’s Civic Leadership Academy Unveils Three-Year Evaluation

Tenisha Jones (pictured), director of education for the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, was part of the Civic Leadership Academy’s 2015 cohort and said that participating in the program changed the way she approaches her work. Photo Credit: University of Chicago Office Of Civic Engagement
Tenisha Jones (pictured), director of education for the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, was part of the Civic Leadership Academy’s 2015 cohort and said that participating in the program changed the way she approaches her work. Photo Credit: University of Chicago Office Of Civic Engagement

University Of Chicago’s Civic Leadership Academy Unveils Three-Year Evaluation

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

After three years of operation, The Civic Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago has released a formal evaluation of their first three cohorts. The results of the evaluation show that the interdisciplinary programming the University is providing has benefited the individuals and organizations that have participated and Chicago’s civic network as a whole.

The Civic Leadership Academy was created in 2014 by the University’s Office of Civic Engagement and other founding partners including LISC Chicago, Civic Consulting Alliance, the City of Chicago, and Cook County.

The goal of the Civic Leadership Academy is to develop a pipeline of informed and engaged leaders to assist local nonprofits and government agencies achieve their goals.

“The idea was to very intentionally build a new leadership development program that would bring together 15 non-profits and 15 government leaders to the same educational space. We have them meet intensely, over six months, with faculty that is not just from one aspect of the University,” said Joanie Friedman, executive director of Civic Leadership in the Office of Civic Engagement at the University of Chicago.

Many of the program fellows come from the south and west sides of Chicago, according to Freidman “We realized that often times the government sector and the nonprofit sector were working on the same tasks but were lacking communication and there were tensions between the two communities,” said Friedman.

“We started to think about how we could leverage what’s good about the University like the faculty, the curriculum, and the space and time for knowledge exchange, and how we could use what we have to help solve the problem of nonprofit and government sectors often working at odds with one another but on the same issues.”

The Civic Leadership Academy pools resources from all ends of the University for the program fellows to have at their fingertips. “We have taken the resources and power and love of the entire University and wrapped it around these civic leaders. We coordinate experiences from all 5 professional schools including business, law, social service administration, continuing education, and public policy.

We wrapped them all together and created a coherent curriculum that includes a week-long global practicum to either South Africa or India as part of this really deep investment in the people who are working hard every day to make Chicago a better place,” said Friedman.

Tenisha Jones, director of education for the Greater Auburn-Gresham Development Corporation, was in the 2015 Civic Leadership Academy cohort and said that participating in the program totally changed how she approached her work.

“I’m more confident in my approach to my work and how I handle myself. I don’t let things get me discouraged as much because I know that I have the capacity to change things and to understand when things can’t be changed,” said Jones in a written statement.

For more information, visit cla.uchicago.edu and for more information about Civic Leadership Education at the University of Chicago contact joaniefriedman@uchicago.edu

Latest Stories

Latest Podcast

STARR Community Services International, Inc.