Aisling Maki - The Daily News -

The Leadership Academy’s latest crop of fellows graduated from the program Sept. 15 after creating and implementing a number of innovative, long-term projects that will serve to improve the quality of life in the Greater Memphis community.
About 60 Academy fellows annually – 30 in April and 30 in September – graduate from the nonprofit organization’s 12-month program, which provides emerging leaders with the tools, experiences and connections needed to become agents of change and champions for Memphis.

Participants are roughly 50 percent native Memphians and 50 percent transplants to the city. Fifty-one percent are ethnic minorities.

“They come from all spectrums of geographical locations and industries, from nonprofits, corporate, entrepreneurial and government,” said Rod Moses, director of Fellows for The Leadership Academy. “It really is a diverse class that looks a lot like Memphis.”

Fellows from the most recent class represented an array of companies and organizations, including Smith & Nephew, Baptist Memorial Healthcare Corp., FedEx Corp., Commercial Advisors LLC, Medtronic Inc., University of Memphis, Streets Ministries and The Urban Child Institute. Small, diverse groups of fellows work together on the program’s curriculum’s core component, which is the development and implementation of Community Action Projects (CAPs) – ranging from arts and health care to education and urban planning – designed to build capacity of existing nonprofit organizations.

There are currently more than 100 CAPs sustaining Memphis-area nonprofits.

“It’s not community service, where you have to volunteer for so many hours at these organizations,” Moses said. “It’s actually hearing the need of the organization, understanding what those needs are, and then – based on the timeframe of the program – making a deliverable based upon what they’ve agreed to do. It’s about a project that’s sustainable, will build capacity, and bring about a long-term effect.”

Past projects include a partnership with Healthy Memphis Common Table to combat youth diabetes in the 38126 ZIP code; a music partnership with Memphis Symphony Orchestra and Stax Music Academy to introduce musical instruments to elementary school students; the development of instruction guides for 911 dispatchers to reference when working with Spanish-speaking callers; and a project to train school principals to effectively cultivate and use technology in their schools.

The most recent class spearheaded CAPs with organizations such as Agape Child and Family Services, Girls Inc., the Kemmons Wilson Family Foundation, Sustainable Shelby, Memphis Teachers Residency, KIPP Memphis and Shelby Farms Park Conservancy.

Fellows working with Agape helped develop a brand awareness campaign to build community awareness around the organization’s programs and services, with fellows providing services that otherwise would have cost the organization thousands of dollars. “The fellows actually gave them a system-based tool that they could use for other campaigns, so if they decide to do another brand awareness campaign, they can use the same tools to analyze future campaigns for the organization,” Moses said.

Another team worked with Shelby Farms Park Conservancy to develop a data collection plan that focused on gathering data from online sources, physical counts of who uses the park, and length and nature of visits.

Visit www.leadershipacademy.org for more information.