Collaborative Partners:

Nicole Breazeale, UK Extension, CLD Associate Professor

Sarah Congleton, UK Cooperative Extension, Montgomery County

Ron Catchen, UK Cooperative Extension, Montgomery County

Dan Kahl, UK Extension, CLD Associate Professor, CEDIK

Audriana Palmer, KSU Community Leadership Specialist

The Kentucky Leadership Summit was held at the KSU Benson Farm on May 24, 2023. Nearly 80 participants representing 32 leadership programs from across Kentucky participated in the summit. To host the event, University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University Cooperative Extension partnered with the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Executives to invite community leadership program planners to this important networking event. Core planning was organized by Daniel Kahl, UK Community and Leadership Development and Ron Catchen, Montgomery County Extension Manager, with the support of an exceptional planning team that included Adriana Palmer, Kentucky State University, Amy Cloud, Director of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Executives, Sarah Congleton, Montgomery County, and advisors of leadership programs in Kentucky.

In conjunction with event registration, summit planners distributed a poll to assess community leadership program issue priorities. At the summit, a facilitator was assigned to each of these topic areas. Participants addressed how the issue is a challenge to community leadership programs and solicited successful responses to the issue.

During the summit, Dr. Nicole Breazeale, Associate Extension Professor, introduced Ripple Effects Mapping (REM) as a tool to assess the community impacts of local leadership programs, engage alumni, jump-start a planning process, and tell the story of program successes. 23 leadership groups expressed interest in an Extension-supported REM process. Two community leadership programs were randomly selected to begin this evaluation service in the summer of 2023.  Additionally, 11 individuals volunteered to attend a REM train-the-trainer, which will be offered in Fall 2023.

Impact Summary:

Cooperative Extension is compiling and coordinating resources to aid in the development of stronger citizens and individuals with the confidence and competence to take action locally. Toward that end, we are creating evidence based processes to improving local leadership development by:

Creating stronger networks: A new statewide social media network was created for Community Leadership Program Coordinators with 75 initial members.

Providing assessment services for community impact

Compiling impact assessment information to share the outcomes of programming on communities.

Providing assessment tools and services to improve the relevance of the program to local leadership priorities.

Compiling resources aligned with locally identified leadership development priorities.