The second cohort of the Community Leadership Academy, organized by Corewell Health and Be Healthy Berrien, is about to be launched and this time it’s going to be focused on Niles and Buchanan.

The first academy, held last year, was centered around Benton Harbor, and the goal was to teach students how to be more engaged in their communities to bring about positive change.

Ashley Hines was a facilitator of the first cohort of 12 and tells us the idea was to connect people who care with those mentors and experts who know how to turn ideas into action.

“A lot of times there are people who are very passionate about their community, but they don’t necessarily have the tools to make their projects come to life, interact with community leaders and stakeholders, knowing where to find existing plans of what’s already happening in the city,” Hines said.

For ten weeks, the 12 members of the cohort attended sessions led by the United Way and Corewell to discuss teambuilding and leadership. They were tasked with developing a project that could result in more healthy neighborhoods.

“It’s really great to see how the participants will learn something at a class and then it allows them to start seeing their community in a different way.”

Be Healthy Berrien’s Dawn Marie Smith told us the members of the Benton Harbor cohort attended sessions led by leaders from several Southwest Michigan organizations.

“They talked about just various topics,” Smith said. “So we had Marcy Hamilton from Southwest Michigan Planning Commission to talk about land use. We had John Egelhaaf to talk about transportation…Joey Andrews came and talked about housing. We really tried to take the content of the material but actually then bring in real live individuals that have that expertise and link that to the content.”

The new Buchanan-Niles cohort will take 12 members, and applications will be accepted through April 1. You can learn more right here.

Photo: the Community Leadership Academy first cohort.