Background
The Leadership for Change project is a 15-month pilot project targeting managers and leaders of social economy organisations in the West of Scotland. Specific areas covered are the Scottish Enterprise LEC areas of Dunbartonshire, Glasgow, Lanarkshire and Renfrewshire.

Development of the programme started in September 2001. The development phase, which lasted until March 2002 allowed for consultation of the social economy sector through three "Exploring Leadership" seminars to establish the need for leadership development in the sector.

Implementation of the Leadership for Change Project started in October 2002 and will run until December 2003. The project is a bespoke leadership development programme that will involve 30 managers from social economy organisations.

Programme Aims
The Leadership for Change Project is a leadership programme to develop leadership capabilities, competencies and new leadership styles among social economy sector managers and leaders.

This is designed to enable them, and the individuals and organisations they serve, to expand and develop sustainable social economic enterprises.

Partnership
The Leadership for Change Partnership is managed by SCVO and involves partners from the Scottish Enterprise LEC areas of Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire and Glasgow.

The project also has key partners in and benefits from contributions from The Leadership Trust, Leaders at Work and Scottish Leadership Foundation.

Further financial support comes from The Western Scotland Objective 2 Programme, Scottish Enterprise National and North and South Lanarkshire Councils.

Format
The development programme comprises three strands of activities, which are:

• A series of seminars covering a range of topics
   

• Peer learning group sessions for participants to offer each other support and share experiences to aid networking and application of learning
   

• Mentoring, which provides additional one-to-one support to participants

The leadership development programme is designed to provide training that is practical, participatory and that will afford participants the opportunity to explore and share issues and concerns affecting their organisations.

The training will allow for immediate application and trying out of new and alternative ways of dealing with these issues. It is intended that this will encourage cascading of ideas and practices within participants’ organisations to promote sustainability, innovation and development of leadership potential within organisations.

Training is delivered by Ayrshire Management Centre (Paisley University Business School) , Leaders at Work, Scottish Leadership Foundation and The Leadership Trust.