From Global to Local Just Got Shorter.

Wisdom is everywhere, but often goes unrecognized. What is in plain sight can be most easily overlooked, which is why many of our city's educational issues remain unaddressed. Many voices bring many solutions. The rich diversity of our local cities calls upon us all to use the new tool of collaboration to listen more effectively and to act across former boundaries. John Gardner said:

"Behind all the current buzz about collaboration is a discipline. And with all due respect to the ancient arts of governing and diplomacy, the more recent art of collaboration does represent something new %96 maybe Copernican. If it contained a silicon chip, we'd all be excited."

A real difference that begins on a local level can grow into a powerful far-reaching force. What's right for any child in a cultural community is the right thing for us as a city. And for our nation. And for the world. It's as simple as that.

The Time is Right

The face of the Twin Cities has been rapidly changing for decades. Now, people are starting to notice. Our cities are now home to one of the largest multi-cultural populations in the nation as well as a wide range of oneculture communities. This diversity is particularly evident in our public schools, where more than 70% of the students are nonwhite. However, these populations rarely participate in civic engagement and educational policymaking. The time to train, nurture and grow new leaders is now.

What's the Process?

Step 1	25 Kellogg Community Fellows work together on leadership issues
Step 2	Five ethnic/cultural communities work separately on Issue identification for each community Urban education policy development
Step 3	Twenty five Kellogg Community Fellows come together to Compare separate ethnic cultural policy developments Develop a common agenda for implementation Link to mainstream community leaders Create institutional change Link to mainstream policy organizations Improve public education
Step 4	Five ethnic/cultural communities separately develop action plans for Community organizing Public education
Step 5	25 Kellogg Fellows develop sustainability orreplication plan

Announcing an exciting new initiative

Challenging times demand action. Action is most effective when it is cooperative, focused and backed by a commitment to follow through. MIGIZI Communications Inc. has been selected to host the new W.K. Kellogg Foundation Leadership for Community Change Fellowship Program (KLCC). MIGIZI's Native Academy, an education service program specializing innovative approaches to K-12 and professional development is leading the local initiative.

Native Academy will develop diverse community leadership that can work across boundaries — geographical, racial, cultural, class and faith. In Minneapolis, five cultural communities are participating in the program:

• African
• African American
• Asian
• Hispanic/Latino
• Native American

The fellows will train and serve within their own cultural communities — with the goal of improving teaching and learning on a local level.

Whose Leadership Is Missing?

There is a significant lack of invitation to cultural communities in the development of public policy at the front end. Within the cultural communities the new generation of leaders needs to be recognized.

What Do We Define as Community?

There are a host of communities in the Twin Cities. Because diverse participation is so important in modern urban life, the Cultural Communities Leadership project is particularly interested in cultural communities. New leadership is beginning to assert itself economically, politically, and culturally, and in the workings of the mainstream community. It is time to match this emergence with invitations and partnerships.

And it must not be forgotten that each of these major cultural groupings has, within itself, significant and important differences. There is no one size fits all.

It Makes Sense to Do the Right Thing

As a leader in your own realm, your role is important. How can you help?

New talent grows into new leadership that identifies problems, works for solutions on local levels, interfaces with existing leadership and achieves community change. Everyone benefits.

Robert Terry, leadership architect, mentor and author said "I am a great believer that leadership, while often linked to positions, is not reducible to position. Leadership is possible for all of us at any time. The three questions are: Are we ready for it, prepared to do it and courageous to make it happen?"

A National Effort

Minneapolis is not alone in this important initiative. The KLCC program is jointly coordinated by the Institute for Educational Leadership in Washington, DC and the Center for Ethical Leadership in Seattle, Washington. Our partners in this effort to create a national tapestry of talented leadership include:

• Buffalo, New York — The KLCC fellows in Buffalo will
  work to close the academic performance gap that exists
  between the school district's White students and their
  African American and Latino peers. The host agency is
  the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York.
  
  
• Eastern Cibola County, New Mexico — The goal here
  is to increase student achievement by integrating Native
  American and Latino cultural history into school
  curriculum while meeting accreditation performance
  standards. The host agency is the New Mexico
  Community Foundation & Pueblo of Laguna Department
  of Education.
  
  
• Edcouch, Texas — The Edcouch fellows will use
  media to persuade the community that improving
  educational outcomes for its mostly Latino and heavily
  migrant-worker population is essential to the growth and
  health of the region. The host agency is Llano Grande
  Center for Research and Development.
  
  
• Flathead Indian Reservation, Montana — These
  fellows will focus on reducing the alarming and
  disproportionate dropout rate among American Indian
  students on the reservation. The host agency is Salish
  Kootenai College.
  
  
• Northwestern Wisconsin — The KLCC fellows in this
  area will work to boost enrollment in local post secondary
  education programs, persuading residents of the benefits
  of lifelong learning. The host agency is New Paradigm
  Partners, Inc.

How Will Diverse People Work Together?

Bridges are important. Separate cultural communities are building relationships with one another. Each must also build a relationship with the mainstream. It is important that this bridging process be forged upon a solid foundation within each of the cultural communities.

The Cultural Communities Leadership project will bring emerging leaders together to discover their own bridges and a common policy agenda for urban education. As the project matures, the common agenda and the individual cultural community agendas will be honed with representatives of the mainstream community.