I hope that you are as excited as we are to kick off our 32nd year of being the premiere collaborative leadership experience. Although 2020 presented some very serious challenges and pushed us to our limits on occasion, we have still accomplished so much together. Just a few of our accomplishments:
We provided 37 dedicated professionals with an opportunity to grow and enhance vital leadership competencies outside of the workplace through our Cornerstone LOXXXI Class. They were able to build bonds and form relationships across many different industries and organizations and have developed new ways to give back through their class project. And because virtual programming had a unique set of challenges, Leadership Oakland had partnered with Impact 4 Good to host on-line team building events.
We believe that a collaborative leadership experience does not start when you are already in a position of influence, but instead as part of a journey. Therefore in June of 2020, we hosted 38 diverse, leadership-focused high school students from 15 different schools as part of our Junior Leadership Class XIII. Our community’s future is very bright with so many young people passionate about helping the community grow. This was done virtually over three days with a newly developed curriculum that emphasized engagement and relationship building.
We also hosted countless virtual Lunch and Learn sessions with topics ranging from – “How to build relationship in a virtual setting?” to “The future of education”.
Lastly, we gave back to our community. In December, Leadership Oakland rallied together over a three-week time period to host a virtual “Together We Can” campaign and raise $5,450 for Forgotten Harvest. This donation was then matched by a donor at Forgotten Harvest thereby doubling the impact of our efforts.
Thank you to all of our Leadership Oakland family for not only helping us through a difficult year, but for going above and beyond to make our community stronger during a time of great need. We are all looking forward to building on this success in 2021.