The UBC Community Leadership Program (CLP) is an innovative leadership development opportunity designed for aspiring staff leaders and provides an opportunity for learners to explore leadership concepts and principles in a cohort learning environment through a series of interactive, participatory workshops and experiential learning. Participant leaders apply and practice new skills and knowledge by leading a group of UBC undergraduate students through a three-day community-service learning project in a school or non-profit organization during the UBC Reading Week break in February. In addition to learning about leadership, project leaders assist UBC students to cultivate their own leadership capacity and reflect on some of the real issues in community.
CLP was collaboratively developed in 2006 by three units and is delivered in partnership by UBC Human Resources (Organizational Development & Learning) and the UBC Centre for Community Engaged Learning. The program has proven a rich and multi-dimensional applied learning environment that currently attracts staff and graduate students from the University, employees from UBC corporate partners, and professional staff from community non-profit organizations.
What Are the Individual Outcomes for CLP Participants?
Through the program’s unique combination of content-driven workshops reinforced by the practical application of leadership concepts through the shared Reading Week project experience, CLP participants:
- Grow their leadership capabilities – particularly by developing a different understanding of strengths (using the *StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment from Gallup, Inc.).
- Gain management or team leadership experience – through leveraging their own strengths and tapping into the strengths of other team members.
- Develop team development skills – by being challenged to play an educator role for UBC students who volunteer their time to be part of a Reading Week project.
- Practice practical project management – through scoping a Reading Week project and setting and achieving goals in a complex community setting with multiple stakeholders and often changing parameters.
- Explore different manifestations of the complexity of community – particularly through the challenge of building a community within a project team while developing a relationship with a project partner (whether a school or a non-profit) and a connection with their community as well.
CLP participants can expect to build their capacity and practice behaviours and skills that are directly transferable to the work environment, including:
- Managing competing interests
- Facing new challenges and assuming greater responsibility
- Working with people from diverse perspectives
- Dealing with paradox, engaging with conflict
- Planning and managing projects
- Building a successful team
- Challenging themselves and others to think more deeply about important community issues
- Navigating ambiguous situations
- Exploring guiding/facilitative versus directing/telling styles of leadership
- Building emotional intelligence capacity
- Approaching calculated risk
- Working with difficult situations
- Facilitating team learning
- Cultivate learning through reflection
Program Components and Participant Investment
Each year CLP is made up of the following components that spread out between mid-October and mid-March:
- 4 full-day interactive and experiential workshops spread out between October and January
- Planning and delivery of a UBC Reading Week Community Service Learning Project that begins in November, with projects delivered over three full days in mid-February
- Program wrap-up and reflection event held in March
Program Overview
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Program Element |
Learning Objectives |
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Workshops |
Applied Learning (Reading Week Project) |
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Day 1 Workshop (mid-October) |
Focus on building self-awareness as a leader and bringing forward your personal strengths. |
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Day 2 Workshop (late October) |
Focus on personal learning goals and exploring leadership theory, concepts and frameworks. |
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Project Meet and Scope Event (early November) |
Providing a space for bringing strengths and learning objectives into community partner planning. |
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Day 3 Workshop (late November) |
Focus on building successful teams, understanding group dynamics and project management. |
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Studio Sessions (early December) |
Focus on the practicalities of the project and learning from fellow CLP participants. |
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Day 4 Workshop (mid-January) |
Focus on how being an educator is part of being a leader and the role and impact of working in community. |
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Reading Week Project Kick-off Event (early February) |
Projects begin with CLP participants meeting their UBC student teams. |
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Reading Week Project Delivery (mid-February) |
All elements come together in the delivery of the planned three-day project. |
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Program Wrap-Up and Reflection (late March) |
Focus on reflection from the experience and making connections professionally and at work. |
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Why Does UBC Invest in Leadership Development through CLP?
There are a number of areas where UBC invests in its staff. Here are some key reasons why and how the Community Leadership Program is an important part of that people investment:
- The program focuses on leadership development for emerging staff leaders (the program is open to any staff person at UBC interested in growing their leadership capacity), not just leader development.
- CLP provides staff and corporate partners with an opportunity to mentor UBC students and support their learning, particularly important for UBC staff without an educational/student-focused role at the University.
- The program provides a unique learning opportunity where concepts and theories of leadership can be tested in real-life situations, embodying the important principles that learning is most profound when tied to experience.
- By engaging in community, this work continues to advance the University’s understanding of global and community issues associated with promoting a civil and sustainable society.