MCCC And The Citizens Campaign Partner To Establish Leadership Center In Trenton
10/25/2021
TRENTON –- Mercer County Community College (MCCC) recently announced the establishment of a Citizen Leadership Center designed to train students and members of the community as “citizen leaders” working to better their communities and the country. MCCC is one of 11 community colleges around the nation to date where model Citizen Leadership Centers are being developed in partnership with The Citizens Campaign -- a community of problem-solvers dedicated to restoring service, mutual respect and pragmatism to America’s political culture. The pioneering Citizen Leadership Center will be designed to pave the way for putting the nation’s 1,100 community colleges at the center of a new National Citizen Leadership Service that generates principled, pragmatic citizen leaders.
The MCCC Citizen Leadership Center will have three core components: (1) offering training in leadership and no-blame problem solving in one or more undergraduate courses; (2) offering citizen leadership training to the broader community via the college’s continuing education program; and (3) hosting a Civic Truston its James Kerney Campus in Trenton, where those who have completed the citizen leadership training work together in no-blame problem solving sessions to better their communities by searching forand advancing cost-effective, evidence based solutions.
“We know our students and the public at large are committed to improving Trenton, the surrounding communities in Mercer County and the nation as a whole. It is part of our mission to give them the skills and knowledge to do so," said President of Mercer County Community College Jianping Wang.
Wang continued, “Partnering with The Citizens Campaign in establishing a Citizen Leadership Center at Mercer County Community College will help us fulfill this critical mission. It will empower our students and interested members of the public to be effective, active leaders contributing to the betterment of their communities and our country.”
Harry Pozycki, founder of The Citizens Campaign, said, “The work done here at Mercer County Community College will help create a national model for the development of citizen leaders whose example of unselfish service and no-blame problem solving can bridge our divides and heal our nation.”
“By training students and residents in leadership and no-blame problem-solving, the Mercer County Community College Citizen Leadership Center will help us expand our problem-solving capacity in one of New Jersey’s most diverse communities,” said Mayor of Trenton W. Reed Gusciora. “I look forward to working with Mercer County Community College, the Citizens Campaign and the Trenton Civic Trust to develop the next generation of leaders and build a better Trenton.”
The core components of the Citizen Leadership Center are elaborated upon briefly below:
Leadership and no blame problem-solving training incorporated in undergraduate courses: Both as stand-alone courses and as a course component, Power Civics Leadership Training will be incorporated into undergraduate course offerings. Power Civics introduces students to the power levers of local government, a proven no-blame problem solving method developed by ‘successful practitioners’ in local and state government, and accessible opportunities for students to put this knowledge to work as non-partisan Civic Trustees.
Leadership and no-blame problem-solving training added to the continuing education offerings: To provide the broader community with the opportunity to learn how to become effective leaders improving their own hometowns, Mercer County and the nation, Mercer County Community College will provide Power Civics as a continuing education offering.
Hosting the Trenton Civic Trust: The Mercer County Community College James Kerney Campus (JKC) in Trenton will serve as the host of the Trenton Civic Trust, composed of 24 Civic Trustees, who come together in monthly no-blame problem solving sessions, searching the nation to identify successful solutions to better Trenton. Trustees commit to at least one year of service and pledge to work to “leave their city better than they found it.”
Other Citizen Leadership Centers located at community colleges include: Bakersfield College (Bakersfield, California); Cascadia College (borders Seattle,Washington) Highline College (borders Seattle, Washington); Hagerstown Community College (Hagerstown, Maryland); Harold Washington College (Chicago, Illinois); Houston Community College (Houston, Texas); Miami Dade College (Miami, FL); Middlesex College (Perth Amboy, New Jersey); Pikes Peak Community College (Colorado Springs, Colorado) and Trident Technical College (Charleston, South Carolina). A Citizen Leadership Center is also being established at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.
For further information about the Citizen Leadership Center at MCCC, please contact James Kerney Campus Dean, Tonia-Perry Conley at conleyt@mccc.edu.
Mercer County Community College (MCCC) has recently partnered with The Citizens Campaign to create a model Citizen Leadership Center for students and community members. MCCC is one of eleven community colleges around the nation selected to begin building a community of problem-solvers dedicated to restoring service, mutual respect and pragmatism to America’s political culture.