Leadership Collier Foundation Celebration

Leadership, mentorship, and talent development impacting Collier County

AMANDA BEIGHTS, SENIOR DIRECTOR, LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS​

The Leadership Collier Foundation (LCF) recently hosted a “Celebration Meeting” to recognize the growing body of work in leadership, mentorship, and talent development impacting our community.
 
The Leadership Collier Foundation is the Chamber’s 501c3 Foundation, specifically focused on developing community leaders to become informed and engaged on community issues and opportunities and become the difference-makers. 
 
For 32 years, the LCF has cultivated a leadership network that shaped Collier County for the better. LCF Alumni can be found in several of our highest and most critical leadership roles, responding to our community’s calls-to-action like no other. Because they are now a part of this informed and engaged, they can work together, and with us to address our community’s most challenging needs, from housing or talent, to the environment or health care. There is tremendous power this network of leadership has in being the difference-makers we need for a stronger Collier County. 
 
As the LCF wrapped up the 2020 fiscal year last May, we were able to successfully educate and cultivate an additional 117 local leaders, from youth to young professionals, to senior executives. And after surveying all graduates in 2020, 94% of them felt inspired to take on additional community leadership roles to build a stronger Collier—and if there were ever a year where community leadership was needed—this was it!  
 
Like so many, 2020 also came with its many challenges. We questioned how we would be able to continue our mission, when our ability to provide experiential learning was put to a sudden halt.
 
It was not more than 2 weeks post the “stay at home” order that the Leadership Collier Foundation began to shift to virtual education to assure our community leaders were informed and engaged on weekly topics, focusing on health care, education, first response, mental health, government, and more. 
 
Virtual education programming continued through the fall, until we began our first, in-person (and safely managed) education sessions for class members and alumni, beginning with Youth Leadership Collier in October. 
 
Through a variety of creative solutions, from outdoor concepts, to postponing sessions, and only because of our incredibly strong network of community partnerships, we have continued on with 100% of our leadership and alumni programming to assure the foundation of our foundation—LEADERSHIP—is stronger than ever. 
 
And we didn’t just continue our mission—we strengthened it. 

• In June of 2020, we developed the Leadership Collier Foundation’s first ever 3-year Strategic Plan, in partnership with the LCF Board of Advisors, to provide a clear vision and structure for our future success. 

 

• Created a new alumni committee, focused on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, to assure we are best addressing needs on this topic within our own body of work. 

 

• Incorporated a new community leadership project for Youth Leadership Collier, in partnership with the Collier County Community Foundation, in which our YLC class members were able to make a difference by deploying a $10,000 grant to mission’s they felt passionate about, including housing and talent development. 

 

• Working on future educational programming to educate and engage hundreds more citizens on community leadership opportunities. 

 

• Strengthened efforts on matching needs, as we work to formally connect alumni to needs within the community, from mentoring students to board and advisory positions. 

 
The chamber’s Work-Based Learning initiative through the Leadership Collier Foundation also pivoted to assure the work of student-business connections, education, and experiences marched on. The Work-Based Learning initiative is a talent development strategy that provides students with real-life work experiences where students can apply academic and technical skills to develop their employability. The Greater Naples Chamber’s goal is to build and maintain a qualified, motivated and diverse workforce which is critical to the success of our local employers.  This last year, the LCF:

• Successfully connected students to internships, information interviews, and job shadowing experiences.

 

• Conducted virtual mentoring sessions, virtual guest speakers, virtual mock interviews, and a virtual tech expo to connect high school students to local tech experts. 

 

• Currently working on our first employer video with Lenkbar which highlights a local employer and showcases their various career opportunities to students. 

 

• Reaching over 5,000 students since its inception in 2018 by educating and connecting students to local careers through hands-on, work-related experiences.

 
 
We invite you view our LCF Celebration video below and hear testimonials from LCF Alumni, students, and employers on how this work has activated their potential in building a stronger Collier. 

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