The Blackstone Valley

BLACKSTONE VALLEY LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

The Blackstone Valley Education Foundation is proud to have been selected as grant recipient from the John H. Chafee National Heritage Corridor initiative. With funds to design unique curriculum and to prepare collateral material, the Blackstone Valley Leadership Academy will be launched in 2012.

The BV Leadership Academy's roots are found in Leadership Blackstone Valley, a program of the early century, currently on hiatus.

This newly reignited program strengthens the balance between conservation and growth and promotes quality of life while preserving the Blackstone Valley's heritage and role in the history of the United States. Long-term business and community sustainability concerns are addressed by cultivating steward-based leadership skills among executives and directors of government bodies, privately held companies, not-for-profit organizations, professional bodies, and those wishing to engage more meaningfully and successfully within their realm as professionals and citizens.

THIS PROJECT SUPPORTS learning in the context of the Blackstone River Valley Heritage Corridor, as Leadership Academy participants will witness practice that balances stewardship and leadership. They will also come to understand how relevant, impactful, sustainable endeavors delivered with excellence can strengthen their success as leaders in enterprise, government or service.

Through the development of steward-based leadership skills, Academy participants will generate and promote long-term well being of their region or business and recognize the interdependencies between four spheres:

• relevant economy
• Livable community
• Social inclusion and
• Governance

Steward-Leaders will learn how to work across boundaries of jurisdiction, sector and discipline to connect these four spheres and create opportunity and impact for their region. (Banff Executive Leadership Inc) They will learn about systems thinking as a discipline for seeing wholes and as a framework for seeing interrelationships between self-interest and profitability, to understanding the importance of alliance to build shared futures - economic, environmental and social.