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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
Feeding San Diego Rises to the Challenge of Fighting Hunger in Wake of Pandemic
Carissa Casares, Senior Communications Manager Feeding San Diego
When the pandemic hit, Feeding San Diego started doing something it hadn’t done before: drive-through food distributions. The early ones were in the parking lot of the now defunct Qualcomm Stadium, and the long lines of cars were a visual representation of the challenges the pandemic created. Feeding San Diego’s Together Tour is a massive team effort, requiring the organization to build out online registration, develop a system for drive-through distributions specific to each site, and recruit a large numbers of volunteers to help each distribution run smoothly.
Seeing no sign of slowing, Feeding San Diego created the Together Tour in response to this elevated need for food assistance. These large-scale, drive-through food distributions started in February 2021 and have since grown to include 12 sites across San Diego County. The distributions have continued into 2022 due to the continued economic hardship in the region as evidenced by increasing attendance numbers. Since last February, over 330,000 individuals have been served and over 4.7 million pounds of food have been distributed at sites located throughout San Diego County, from Ramona to El Cajon to Escondido.
Most of the sites are prepared to serve upwards of 1,000 households in just a couple of hours, with each family receiving a minimum of 50 pounds of food, including fresh produce, frozen meat protein, and dry goods. The series of no-cost food distributions takes place at large venues around San Diego County, including recognizable venues like Pechanga Arena. The sites with the highest turnout, usually with over 1,000 households pre-registered, are in the South Bay at North Island Credit Union Amphitheatre and Southwestern College.
While attendance dipped slightly in February 2022, numbers began increasing shortly thereafter and rose to the highest they have been in April 2022, serving over 8,000 households in one month. Feeding San Diego’s team continues to meet San Diegans affected by economic hardship caused by record-high gas prices and soaring inflation.
“Last time we were here, we got ground turkey and that was awesome because meat is so expensive,” shares Sydney, an attendee of the Together Tour site at The Shoppes at Carlsbad. “I adopted my sister's three kids. Plus, with the pandemic, a lot of people lost their jobs, but I work at the grocery store and just working at the grocery store I have completely seen the drastic change in prices on things. After COVID hit, everything just skyrocketed and it's been hard. Then gas on top of that, it just gets harder and harder. Plus, we live in California so that's hard as well.”
Another attendee named Vanessa shared how much the distribution would help her and her family after recently moving to San Diego.
"This is our first distribution,” she explained. “I recently just moved here from San Antonio so we have a Facebook group and they posted about it. It definitely does help, especially when they give out fresh produce. It also helps because it’s definitely expensive here in California. I’m in the military, but the cost of living here is a lot more expensive than any other duty station I've been to. Even just if we go out to eat, it's so expensive compared to Texas or any other place that I've been to. The gas, especially, is expensive, housing, everything.”
Feeding San Diego relies on donations and volunteers to work towards its mission of ending hunger through food rescue. Volunteers are needed to sort, glean, and pack food that is distributed at the Together Tours, and to help operate Together Tours throughout the county.
Learn more and how you can get involved at www.feedingsandiego.org.