Empowering People: Spokane and Gonzaga team up to create a training academy for neighborhood council leaders

The City of Spokane and Gonzaga University are working together to train neighborhood council members in leadership positions.

The first Spokane Neighborhood Leadership Academy will run for five months from January and will consist of four-hour sessions on six Saturdays.

As part of the free academy, the 12 participants also meet regularly with volunteer mentors who already have experience in neighborhood help.

There are 29 neighborhood councils in the city’s three parishes. Since their inception about two decades ago, neighborhood councils have served as “sounding boards” for government agencies and departments, including but not limited to the City of Spokane, to ensure their community’s voices are heard on various developments, said Carly Cortright, director of the City’s Neighborhood Services Office.

Rachelle Strawther, director of the Gonzaga Center for Lifelong Learning, said aspiring community councilors are not required to attend the academy, which is starting as a pilot program.

“It’s really just about empowering people, building their confidence and skills,” she said.

Strawther said Spokane City Council president Breean Beggs first proposed the idea of ​​working with Gonzaga in training neighborhood leaders a few years ago. She said that while neighborhood council members are passionate, some don’t understand city government or the nuances of diversity and inclusion issues.

Some of these knowledge gaps were identified in the results of a strengths and needs assessment that Gonzaga conducted between February and July with the assistance of Spokane City Council. Strawther and Cortright said the evaluators conducted interviews, focus groups, and a survey with the assessment while watching the neighborhood council meetings in action. Most councils meet monthly.

Many community council members are interested in learning more about conflict resolution, such as dealing with great personalities and disagreements.

Others do not know where to apply for certain scholarships or who to meet with, for example, on safety and traffic issues.

The reviewers also found that while some councils are good at providing information and training to new leaders during the transition period, others in this department are lacking.

“We learned from other councils, ‘Hey, I have a box. I just got a box of things and that’s it. That was my training, ‘”said Strawther. “We want this program to be able to provide people with the basic skills and knowledge they need to be effective.”

The Office of Neighborhood Services pays Gonzaga’s time to run the academy, and attendance is free for attendees. The program has a budget of $ 10,000.

“This is a great partnership between Gonzaga, the city, and our neighborhoods that aims to provide continued education and engagement with additional cohorts this year and in the future,” Beggs said in a statement.

As part of the academy, the program administrators expect participants to remain in a leadership role in the neighborhood for at least two years from the start of the program.

“We’re not saying, ‘Hey, you have to be a chairman or run for this elected office.’ We are not trying to impose these kinds of limits or expectations on people, we are asking people to serve, ”Strawther said. “If you only do this for a year it won’t have much of an impact, but if you do it for two you can actually see some shifts and some changes. You can make a real difference on your neighborhood council. “

Cortright said the needs analysis found that some of the seasoned leaders on the councils are ready to step down and hand over the baton, but no one appears.

Accordingly, the Academy’s volunteer mentors will go through some training before working with the participants.

“I think in a perfect world, if we can develop that relationship further, we may be able to develop training that works for those who are already in an existing position,” said Cortright, “but I think our first focus was to really look at them. “New and aspiring leaders, support them so they can take on some of these more experienced people and focus on creating some of these safe spaces for better integration.”