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Resident Leadership Academies
Resident Leadership Academies (RLAs) are multi-week training programs for San Diego County residents who want to learn how to improve their local communities. Training sessions focus on topics such as community leadership, crime prevention and safety, land use and active transportation, and healthy food systems.
Residents learn skills and best practices to address the issues that most affect their communities, and they work alongside their neighbors to help improve quality of life where they live. Upon graduation, attendees have new knowledge and access to a support network to help them lead community improvement projects.
RLA Updates and Opportunities
Many individuals and organizations are involved in Resident Leadership Academies across the County. The latest updates can be found on social media.
RLA Curriculum
Those who would like to facilitate an RLA can find the Facilitator/Train the Trainer and Participant materials below. The RLA Curriculum consists of a Participant Manual, modifiable PowerPoints, and various templates and handouts. The curriculum covers subjects such as Community Building Principles, Social Determinants of Health, Land Use and Community Planning, and more.
The County of San Diego currently has two approved RLA curriculums available. For groups funded for a particular RLA session or project, the version of the curriculum to be used will be determined by your funder (see links below). For all other groups, either version, or elements from both, may be used for the trainings.
- 1st Edition Curriculum
1st edition curriculum covers resident-driven community improvement efforts, including community building principles, neighborhood assessment activities and strategies for stakeholder engagement. - 2nd Edition Curriculum
2nd edition curriculum expands on the 1st edition to include embedded activities, reflection questions and content on smoke-free environments and climate change.
Additional RLA Curriculum
- Heat Risk Education Curriculum
The Heat Risk Education Curriculum is a set of PowerPoints and facilitator guides meant to support community leaders and residents involved in community engagement work. The curriculum covers strategies for communicating about global warming and heat risk to the community to motivate behavior change, and covers topics such as global warming, heat illnesses, at-risk groups, prevention, and taking action.
RLA Resources & Opportunities
View the Community Health Improvement Partner's Resident Leadership Academy page for the latest on meetings and trainings.
Bi-Monthly RLA Council Meetings
Meetings to provide additional training, discuss RLA updates, and to engage with other RLA practitioners. Anyone in the RLA network (graduates/residents, facilitators, CBOs and agencies supporting RLA) is welcome and encouraged to attend.
Technical Assistance (TA) for RLA Practitioners
TA is provided by the County to any RLA Practitioner involved with RLAs. TA may consist of assistance with planning of future RLAs, and development, refining, and implementation of Community Improvement Projects (CIPs), for example. For groups funded for a particular RLA session or project, the TA provider will be determined by your funder.
RLA Network Supplemental Training Workshops for Current RLA Practitioners
Supplemental trainings are available to anyone in the RLA network (graduates/residents, facilitators). These trainings focus on expanding leadership skills and offering opportunities for current RLA practitioners to engage with one another. The supplemental trainings may cover, but are not limited to, such topics as: Presentation Skills, Meeting Facilitation, and/or Applying for Resources.
New Facilitator Training/Train the Trainer Seminars
Seminar participants attend 3-4 full days of training, which consist of a detailed review of the curriculum, facilitation practice and tips for RLA planning and coordination. One or more new facilitator trainings per year will be offered through 2019.
Contact us for additional information on any of the resources listed above, or to learn about RLAs happening in your community.
RLA Success Stories
Martin Luther Kings Jr Community Choir San Diego Uses Their Talents to Celebrate Juneteenth
Cherry Arnold-Verry, Board Chair, The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir
The Martin Luther King Jr. Community Choir is an all nonprofit organization that promotes the arts in its community and raises funds to provide scholarships for San Diego County high school seniors pursuing a college degree in the Visual or Performing Arts. To date the Choir has awarded almost $300,000 in educational grants to 223 students through its gospel concert performances and other fundraising efforts. The Choir is a diverse group made up of about 100 volunteers from all over San Diego County.
The Choir, directed by Kenneth Anderson since 1996 has performed locally, at libraries, churches, synagogues, San Diego Hospice, December Nights, the San Diego Symphony, and the annual MLK Dignity Breakfast and regionally, at the LA Airport and in Arizona. Their international performances include a 2004 tour to the Czech Republic, Austria and Italy; a 2009 tour to Denmark and the Netherlands, a 2016 educational tour in Vienna culminating with a performance at the 2016 Advent Sings event. Nationally, members of the Choir travelled to New York City to perform at Carnegie Hall in May 2016 and performed in historic Philadelphia, PA and Washington, DC in September of 2018.
Pastor Anderson is not only the choir director but also serves a music teacher in the public school system and Director of the UCSD Gospel Choir and Grossmont College Gospel Choir.
“We believe in what we’re doing,” Ms. Arnold-Verry, Choir President said. “We believe that this is improving community relationships.”
Recently after several concerts in local churches, attendees came up to the Choir sharing that for several reasons, they had been discouraged and troubled prior to the concert, then experienced inspiration and a more joyful attitude after listening to their repertoire composed of Negro Spirituals, gospel music, hymns and anthems.
Juneteenth honors the memory of June 19, 1865, when Union soldiers rode into Galveston, Texas and read President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation to the public. President Lincoln had signed the document on January 1, 1863, but it took another two and a half years for news of freedom to reach the nearly a quarter of a million slaves in Texas.
Since Juneteenth was declared a national holiday, more local organizations are inviting MLK to be their guest Choir for special events.
This season is the 25th Anniversary Season of awarding educational grants and the 15th Anniversary Season of holding a major fundraiser, "All 'Bout the Blues", produced and directed by Arnessa Rickett-Jones. The show was held May 21st at the Joan Kroc Theatre and highlighted the Choir's commitment to providing passionate, inspired musical theater that ignites the human spirit. The cast was all-volunteer, including San Diego County youth. Some of San Diego's finest paid musicians enhanced the production to promote the arts to a population which is urbanized and ethnically diverse in a typically low-income, high unemployment area. The arts and entertainment are generally not a priority, when food and shelter is. This project offered many in the targeted communities the opportunity to attend live theater and see quality musical performances by local artists and musicians. The show brought enrichment and faith to these communities, as well as grant opportunities for local youth through the fundraising activities of the Choir.
The Choir is committed to Martin Luther King's dream that children in our nation will one day be judged not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character. Membership in the Choir is open to singers and musicians, from all denominations, with prior choral experience. Members must have a desire to volunteer their time and talents and attend regular weekly scheduled rehearsals. Short auditions are held for new members at the start of every season in September. Visit MLKCCSD.org to find out how to join and upcoming shows. The Choir has a schedule of 45 – 50 concerts or performances per season.