Federal Home Loan Bank Sponsors Community Leadership Training

An interview with Kevin Welsch,
Federal Home Loan Bank’s Associate Director of Economic Development

The workshop, held in Pella, Iowa, focused on understanding the role of leadership in community success and developing a strategic outlook and facilitation skills.

Community leaders are teaming up with financial institutions in five states for a Heartland Center series of community development workshops. The two-day training events are sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Des Moines, Iowa, with regional members in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Missouri.

The goal of the training program is to strengthen the leadership skills and build collaborative relationships among rural bankers and other rural community leaders. The first workshop was held in Pella, Iowa, and focused on understanding the role of leadership in community success and developing a strategic outlook and facilitation skills.

Kevin Welsch is Associate Director of Economic Development with the Federal Home Loan Bank. Kevin was instrumental in bringing leadership training to FHLB’s district clients. He chose to partner with the Heartland Center after attending our Skill-Building for Stronger Communities institute held annually in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Recently, Kevin shared with us some of his thoughts about the value of rural community leadership training.

Why did you decide to participate in the Skill-Building workshop?
The Bank’s (district) membership is largely made up of rural members – approximately 80%. The Community Investment Department offers several programs that can be utilized by our rural members to promote and develop affordable housing, main street revitalization and business development within their communities. As a result, the Department likes to keep up-to-date on the issues, challenges and opportunities facing our rural members on a daily basis. We thought the Skill-Building workshop would be a good place for me to learn the new skills and techniques communities in our district should be utilizing to make themselves sustainable. We were also looking into the idea of offering leadership training. The workshop gave us a chance to evaluate the Heartland Center as a possible partner in providing this training…The years of experience they have in working with communities throughout the Bank’s district, and the training topics the Heartland Center offers fit very well with the issues and challenges we heard our members asking about.

What did you learn that you found particularly useful?
That human/social capital is as important, if not more important, than fiscal capital in the development of a sustainable community. In talking with communities at conferences and over the phone about housing or economic development, convincing the community that anything is possible and they are not the only community trying to overcome that same challenge. Discussing with the communities the skills, knowledge, expertise and resources they have available through the community’s social capital. Through organizing those resources and expertise, and creating a common vision for the community, they will be able to accomplish much more.

What do you hope to accomplish with the Leadership Development workshops?
We hope to provide the community teams that attend a common set of skills, knowledge and techniques they need to keep their community sustainable. We feel that by utilizing a team approach we will provide a core within the community to help build consensus and lead a project forward. In addition, we hope to build and enhance the relationship between our member financial institutions and community leaders such as mayors, chamber directors, economic directors, volunteers, council members, board members, and educators.