Enlaces News #7 (May 2004)

Chicago Capacity-Building Program Moves to New Phase:
Train the Trainers

For the past two years, six Mexican Hometown Federations in the greater Chicago area have collaborated with Enlaces America to design and implement a leadership capacity-building program for their members. The overall goal is to build the capacity of the hometown associations by cultivating strong leadership and fortifying networks and ties among the federations’ members. On April 24th, the Asociación de Clubes y Organizaciones Potosinas de Illinois, Casa Guanajuato, Durango Unido, Federación de Clubes Michoacanos en Illinois, Federación de Clubes Unidos Zacatecanos en Illinois, and the Federación Oaxaqueña del Medio Oeste launched a third cycle of leadership training and capacity building workshops. However, this year, a group of seasoned Federation members has taken up the challenge of training to become teachers in the introductory course.

Until this Spring, Enlaces América staff had served as the primary facilitators and trainers for both introductory and advanced leadership training classes. The two levels accommodated HTA members with varying degrees of experience in leadership roles within their own organizations. The group of participants has ranged from founders of clubes and federaciones to younger members that are beginning to get involved in the hometown association activities for the first time. Offered on Saturdays to ensure maximum participation by the Federatons’ volunteer members, the classes are designed to build the overall capacity of the Hometown associations to more effectively approach their diverse sets of goals and objectives. Just as importantly, however, the classes have encouraged members from the different federations to build cross organizational relationships and learn from each other’s experiences.

The new “Train the trainer” model emerged from a planning session in early January with the leadership of seven Mexican Federations, during which the Federation directors brainstormed strategies for engaging more members in the leadership training workshops. Last year, the workshops reached about 45 federation members, but the combined membership in Mexican Hometown federations reaches tens of thousands in the Chicago metro area alone. Federation leaders decided that they wanted to maximize their resources by encouraging those with more experience in leadership
roles to share their knowledge with those just getting started. This core group of trainers will enable the federations to offer training workshops to more participants in the future and will also give the federations more autonomy in the planning and implementation of the courses in the years to come.

Drawing on two years of participation in the leadership training classes, and their own life experiences, the participants in the “Train the Trainers” class will alternate on a weekly basis between learning the ropes of how to be an effective trainer, and teaching the introductory sessions. Topics to be covered in 2004 include: Qualities and Skills of a Good Leader; How to Run an Effective Meeting; Planning for Success; Building Participatory Organizations; and Financial Accountability.