Annual Core Program

Our mission: Roaring Fork Leadership Develops Leaders for the Community.

Our vision: Roaring Fork Leadership is known by local businesses, individuals, and civic & community organizations as THE center of excellence for:
 - Developing effective and invested leaders
 - Building community integration and professional connections through personal relationships
 - Engaging citizens in solving social issues

Purpose of program: Our goals are to:
1) increase a ‘sense of civic responsibility' in our graduates,
2) enhance effectiveness of leadership in the community, and
3) to have graduates make a difference in the civic life of our communities by getting involved in both political and non-political arenas.

We do this through our annual program which consists of 3 elements:
o 40% personal growth and development,
o 30% skills building, and
o 30% critical thinking around regional issues.
For the personal growth and skill building components we bring in national and international trainers. The regional issues days are designed to provide participants the opportunity to put themselves in the position of ‘problem solver' by applying critical thinking to specific issues relevant to the Roaring Fork Valley. We do this by combining a Socratic learning method with exposure to subject matter experts.

Our annual program entails taking 40 community members through 100+ hours of training and dialogue critical for personal, professional, and community problem solving and effectiveness. Inside of the ‘program' participants take on civic projects as a ‘laboratory' for practicing new ways of 'being' a leader.  

Geographic area served: Roaring Fork Valley and the I-70 corridor

Roaring Fork Leadership is celebrating its 22nd year! We now have over 500 alumni, 80% living and working in the Roaring Fork Valley. Our community's most important resource is our people, and Roaring Fork Leadership is an established and well-respected program to support the development of our citizens into leaders for the community.

While participation in our annual program requires a substantial commitment in time and energy, graduates of our program tell us again and again that the skills and relationships developed with Roaring Fork Leadership have positively changed their lives. We hope you will consider this dynamic, transformative program. For testimonials from graduates, click here http://www.rfleadership.org/content/what-people-are-saying-about-rfl

Learning Format: (experiential, lecture, site visits, case studies, small group discussions, research assignments, homework readings): Our skill building and personal development days are run by a speaker/trainer that is a leader in their field, so these sessions tend to leverage lecture and experiential learning exercises, small group discussions, and case studies. Our regional issues days leverage all the above as well as incorporate homework reading assignments and some site visits.

Venues: We leverage venues all over the valley - including but not limited too:
Schools, Town Halls, Hotels, Community Centers, Non-Profit centers, etc,

We will begin recruiting in the spring of 2010 for the class of 2011.  If you are interested in applying for the next class, email terri@rfleadership.org and we will send you an 'email reminder' when we are accepting applications.