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Mariah Haffield
Dr. Fillipovitch
Honors Community Leadership
29 April 2013
How My Understanding of Community Leadership Has Changed
Throughout the past semester, I have been working at the ECHO Food Shelf for the Honors
Community Leadership service learning hours. During these hours, I have observed much, including the
needs of the community and the food shelf and the relationships present at the food shelf, and I have
been put into situations where I have had to apply community leadership theories. During the class
period, we also discussed the readings and our essays that we have written. Prior to this essay, we have
written four different essays, a reflection essay, a walkabout essay, and two observation essays from our
service learning. Originally, I viewed community leadership as the concept of helping the community in
any way possible. My service learning experiences, our discussions in class, and the essays, however,
have helped me to shape and change my understanding of community leadership through observations,
situations, and reflections while one particular discussion has helped to change my understanding of the
definition of a community.
One of the main ways my understanding of community leadership has changed was through my
service learning. Not only was I able to observe theories and concepts discussed in the readings and
during class time, I was in situations where I had to draw upon these concepts and theories. One thing I
observed that corresponded to what I had read concerned the needs of the community and the nonprofit organization and the way that the organization went about solving those needs. I had read that
community members are able to help others in the community development theory of self-help and in
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my service learning, I was able to watch the volunteers at the organization carry out this theory
(Robinson and Green 2011:72). I also had read about the asset-based approach in the Introduction to
Community Development: Theory, Practice, and Service-learning. The asset-based approach to
community development is where the organization or community determines that there are resources
that are underutilized in the community and are able to utilize those resources(Robinson and Green
2011:75). I don’t know if the workers at the organization are aware of these concepts of community
development, but none the less, these were the theories I recognized at the food shelf. The ECHO Food
Shelf was very effective in using these approaches to solve their needs as they are able to effectively
obtain food and is able to distribute thousands of pounds of food to members of the community. The
other aspect I observed and read about was the types of leaderships present in different relationship. I
had observed four different types of l relationships, and in two of them, there was a type of ‘power’
present, and this ‘power’ was held by the leader of the relationship. The main type of leaderships I
observed was situational leadership, and I found that it was very effective at ECHO because it allowed
for easy communication and the reaching of common goals.
Often times, I was put into situations where I was able to directly experience, and not just
observe, what I had read about in our text book. In these situations, I was able to help the community
members of Mankato and was able to be the leader and guide to the food shelf clients as I helped them
select their food. I recognized that I was the situational leader because I had the ‘power’ and was more
suited to lead in the relationship since I was the one who understood the rules of the food shelf. These
types of situations helped me to understand what it was actually like to use these theories to my
advantage and to be able to more effectively help the clients of the food shelf.
From my observations and situations at the food shelf, my view of community leadership
changed. As stated earlier, I had originally I viewed community leadership as the concept of helping the
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community in any way possible. Now, I understand that community leadership is a strategic way to help
the community and is based on several established theories. The organization and the volunteers might
not understand that they are following these theories or understand these theories, but the
organization and the workers run according to these theories. To me, it seems as if following these
theories bring about success in the organization because the ECHO Food Shelf was very successful when
I observed the organization using the theories. My experiences have helped me to understand better
how one can effectively run an organization designed to help the community and to fulfill the needs of
both the organization and the community.
Another aspect of the class that shaped my understanding of community leadership was the inclass discussions. Each week in class, we would discuss what we had read or what we had observed and
experienced in conjunction with our essays that were due. We often discussed the theories and
concepts we had read about and had observed at our service learning organizations. During these
discussions, we often dove deeper into the idea presented by each theory or something we had
experienced and this allowed me to develop my understanding of each of the concepts. It has also
helped me to reflect on what I had experienced as our discussions required me to think about what I
had experienced or observed and how it fit into the ideas of community leadership. Often times, my
initial idea or understanding of what I had read or observed was changed by what was said during the
discussion because I would think about it in a different way or from a different view point. By the end of
class, I was considering each of the ideas from more than one angle. The discussion had changed my
initial understanding of community leadership because I feel as if I have a better understanding of each
of the topics of community development, community leadership, and communities in general.
There was one moment during our discussions where my idea of the definition of community
had changed. I had always thought that community had a rigid definition and was a ‘thing’, something
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which you can see, with clearly defined borders. We were discussing our ideas of the definition of
community when Nicole, a classmate, stated she thought that community was an experience and a state
of being, in addition to being a physical area. I had never considered that definition of community
before, and it changed my way of thinking about a community—I realized that community is not only a
physical place, but also how you feel when you are around people. Since the discussion, I observed this
feeling of community among the employees at the ECHO Food Shelf and also observed this feeling in the
class room. This has helped to change my idea of community leadership because I understand that you
need to make people feel that they are a part of the community because it will help the group
accomplish the common goals because people will communicate effectively.
Finally, the last aspect of the Honors Community Leadership course that has helped to change
my understanding of community leadership was the four essays. The first essay we had to write
concerned how people are able to get along despite differences of opinions. This essay caused me to
think about how groups are able to solve common goals or problems if different aspects of the group
disagreed on the best course of action. This was interesting to consider as I often have wondered how
successful organizations are able to run smoothly, amidst differences. The next essay was the walkabout
essay. As I discussed in this essay, I was able to observe the community of Mankato, where I later did my
service learning. From this walkabout, I was able to develop a deeper understanding of the community.
This understanding helped me to recognize the relationships and needs of the community that I
discussed in my next two observation essays. The first observation essay discussed the needs and
problems of the community and my service learning organization. The second observation essay
discussed the different types of relationships that I observed.
These essays helped me to reflect on all that I had experienced and helped me to connect what I
had learned during earlier observations to current observations. These essays have also helped me to
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reflect on the readings and in class discussions as I was able to tie in what I had learned in that to what I
had observed. The essays I had written were very beneficial to helping me understand all the
information that was presented to me and they also had helped me to deepen my understanding of the
course’s subject.
After the end of this semester, I feel as if I have a better understanding of the idea of community
leadership and what needs to be done to develop a community. If I were to become a leader in a
community, I now understand that certain theories and concepts work better in certain situations than
others, I would pay attention to the theories on community leadership as they can help me become a
successful leader, and I would draw upon my past experiences working for a non-profit organization to
help me understand the theories that are successful. Now, my idea of a leader in the community is
someone who can motivate people, can utilize their resources, will help the members feel the sense of
community, and must have strategic plans for accomplishing their goals. This new understanding is a
result of my Honors Community Leadership class because my service learning, class discussions,
readings, and essays have helped to shape this new understanding.
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Work Cited
Robinson, Jerry W., and Gary P. Green. "The Self-Help Approach to Community Development."
Introduction to Community Development: Theory, Practice, and Service-learning. Los Angeles: SAGE,
2011. 71-83. Print.