LEADERSHIP TRAINING PROGRAM OVERVIEW

The bulk of the work performed by the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation is the Leadership training program aimed at young Arab-American professionals around the United States. The Leadership Training Program is designed to create a network of highly trained, informed and focused young Arab-American professionals equipped to take on the advocacy and organizational efforts required for community leadership in cities and states around the country. The criteria for selection are young people who have finished their education and are already working in their respective professions and who have demonstrated leadership qualities and a commitment to Arab-American concerns.

The program invites these trainees to Washington, D.C., for five day seminars designed to provide them with a broad range of ideas, information and skills that can assist them in whatever field and manner of leadership they are inclined to devote to the interests of the Arab-American community. The seminars also serve to bring these young professional activists together, and create shared and bonding experiences in the pursuit of leadership. The seminar participants join a closed and dedicated email listserv in which the entire group can discuss pressing issues, techniques and approaches to common challenges, and remain in touch with each other to provide mutual support and assistance in a loosely affiliated network of young leaders around the country.

The Foundation anticipates working weekends and retreats, as well as developing and holding the first and second round seminars as a way of continuing to expand the network and the rich possibilities it offers for the nurturing of a new generation of effective leaders for the community and its concerns. The entire group, comprising participants from all seminars held to date, have agreed to collaborate on a book which will serve as a guide to the U.S. political system for Arab-Americans, which the Foundation anticipates publishing in 2007. Further joint projects will be developed as the work of the Leadership Training Program continues to evolve.

This program is completely different from the internship programs of various Arab-American or Muslim organizations in Washington, D.C. that involve undergraduate college students, in that the Hala Foundation Leadership Training Program imparts sophisticated analyses and highly-developed skills to established professionals. We do not seek to indoctrinate our participants in any ideology or particular system of thought, or to establish any sort of hierarchical organization composed of leaders and followers. On the contrary, we are seeking to provide these accomplished professionals with a tool-kit of skills, information, analyses and contacts that will empower them in serving the interests of the Arab-American community as best suits their interests and abilities and as the situation in their local areas requires.