An analysis of the effects of community leadership education program content on six outcome indices of community leadership

This study examined the relationships between community leadership education program design and structure (contact hours and content) and six leadership outcome indices including personal growth and efficacy, community commitment, shared future and purpose, community knowledge, civic engagement, and social cohesion. Two different data-sets were used, one from an online study of participants of leadership programs in 20 counties in 5 states, and the other data-set came from an analysis of the leadership program design and curricula for the leadership programs. The results showed that more training contact hours in two of four content areas led to statistically significant gains in leadership outcome variables after controlling for the effects of other socio-demographic variables. Training content on individual leadership skills and knowledge had significant positive impacts on all six indices. The amount of time spent on public policy processes showed statistically significant gains for both shared future and purpose and community knowledge. However, hours spent on training participants on content areas related to community and community development processes had significant negative impacts on shared future and purpose and community knowledge. Group and teamwork did not produce significant results on any of the outcome indices.