Leadership Fort Collins

About Leadership Fort Collins

Leadership Fort Collins, a program of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce, was established in 1981.

The program is designed to broaden participant knowledge of the community while enhancing leadership skills, encouraging contribution to the betterment of the Fort Collins community, increasing the strength and effectiveness of community leaders, equipping participants to respond to the current and future challenges of the community and to provide opportunities for direct contact with influential people, businesses and organizations while achieving the goal of educating and motivating leaders who are committed to shaping the future of our community.

Thirty current and emerging leaders are selected to participate in the program every year. Participants come together once a month for 9 months for day-long sessions to learn about:

• Growth
• Environment and community planning
• Local government
• Public safety and community assistance
• Economic development and small business assistance
• Health care
• History, diversity, and community betterment
• Education and life-long learning
• Teambuilding and leadership development

Class members are exposed to amazing resources that allow them to be impactful in their community.  Check out this Make Change resource – created by members of the 2017 Class: Making Change without Change _ Resources

In addition to their experiences each month, members of the class are using their skills in a class project.

Project Summaries from 2017:

• Books & Beer Project
  Leadership Fort Collins class members provided 437 books and $437 to the Matthews House to empower families in transition.
• Mental Health First Aid
  65 community members leaded about the value of Mental Health First Aid.
• Habitat Heroes
  The Sister Mary Alice Murphy Center for Hope garden was renovated to provide sustenance and respite to local guests at the center.  The renovation included the addition of 220 plants and $6,000 worth of improvements. 
• Car Seat Drive
  25 car seats were donated to SafeKids Larimer County to make sure kids have a safe ride home.
• Companies Caring 4 Kids
  This new program is providing a connection between companies and kids to provide needed resources to Lesher Middle School including microscopes, calculators and more!
• Food Bank Food Truck Launch
  $1,000 was raised to help the Food Bank fight hunger and increase food security while launching their new food truck.
• FREE Baseball Clinic and Equipment Drive
  29 volunteer coaches worked with 57 youth at the Boys and Girls Club.  114 gloves, 700 balls and 45 bats were donated to area youth.

And the 2018 Class Projects:

• Pathways Hospice Art Drive
  20 pieces of art donated to Pathways to make srue Hospice patients are surrounded by beauty.
• Be Kind Fo Co
  Inspired more than 500 kids and families to Be Kind FoCo resulting in a truck load of stuffed animals being donated to First Responders,  hygiene products to PSD and more!
• Homeless Gear
  Collected and donated more than 1,000 items to support Homeless Gear.
• SAFY Job Shadows
  Providing career connections for youth ages 14-18, resulting in 8 personalized job shadow experiences.
• Big Green
  Inspired 295 students to be engaged with healthy fooods and their own school-based garden.
• Compassion Fatigue
  Helped 95 first responders with Compassion Fatigue, allowing them to recharge while sharing gratitude for their service.
• Volunteer Resource Fair
  Showcased five Not for Profit organizations to the community at a volunteer resource fair that attracted 60 people.