Let us affront and reprimand the smooth mediocrity and squalid contentment of the times, and hurl in the face of custom, and trade, and office, the fact which is the upshot of all history: that there is a great responsible Thinker and Actor working wherever a community leader works; that a true community leader belongs to no other time or place, but is the center of things. Where the community leader is, there is nature. The community leader measures you, and all men, and all events.
The inspiration for this conference grew from the work of our graduates in communities across Pennsylvania and New Jersey over the past two years. In other words, the inspiration for this conference is YOU. The “POWER” in P.O.W.E.R. Coalition stands for “Progressive Organizations Working Together for Extraordinary Results.” Over the past year, our POWER Coalition has been working on an extraordinary grassroots movement called “Community through Personal Responsibility” or “CPR.” CPR is a ground-breaking strategy to revive communities—not only across our region, but across our entire nation. The guiding elements of the movement are available online for a pre-conference forum at: http://powercoalition.blogspot.com
The purpose of our April conference is to employ CPR as a foundation and a departure point for a broader conversation and series of initiatives furthering positive changes in our communities. At the heart of the CPR movement is a very powerful idea: the importance of individuals, personal responsibility, and private, local institutions in furthering vital improvements to our local quality of life. It is an exciting idea about the meaning of personal, local leadership to our future.
I-LEAD’s alumni believe strongly that mass media and competing political ideologies place too much emphasis on the role of government as the solution to our local problems—on government as the wellspring of community leadership. In our region, we look all too often to Harrisburg, to Trenton, to Wilmington, and to Washington, DC for creative initiatives and for fundamental solutions. Most of us know, however, that the long-term answers to community renewal and advancement will only be found in our own homes, on our own blocks, in our own town centers, in our local churches and schools, in our individual hearts, and in the strength of our personal faith.
Our alumni believe that the quest for political power in the remote centers of government authority, and the related battle for command over funding, appointments, political influence, public attention, and patronage have not helped our communities very much. Review of the newspaper headlines over the past twenty years shows that the problems of the past remain with us today—addiction, poverty, chronic illness, crime, unemployment, academic failure, and the weakening of the nuclear family are currently as much a plague as they ever were in the past.
It is not that our government cannot help—communities are thankful for competent and creative public leadership whenever and wherever it goes to work. In our hearts we recognize, however, that long-term solutions must transcend party politics, political ideology, race and class. Long-term solutions must reach the beating heart of the community–the common unity that binds us together, that grows from our shared values involving family, faith, freedom, productivity, and our commitment to equality, opportunity, and prosperity. Local leaders—parents, teachers, block leaders, pastors, coaches, local entrepreneurs, and local civic leaders—are the final guardians and the primary architects of the values we cherish.
Our conference center at Valley Forge promises to be in full spring bloom in April, and there could be no better time to renew our commitment to these shared values and to find inspiring pathways to spring forward. The conference package includes all materials, meals, and lodging. In order to assure your attendance, please register as soon as possible. Your voice and full involvement are critical to our success. Please share this invitation with all who may be interested in attending.
Whether or not you can make the conference, we invite you to be a part of our pre-conference Internet forum about the CPR strategy that we hope will stimulate dialogue before the conference. Please participate in this dialogue and share your comments by going to: http://powercoalition.blogspot.com
We wish to emphasize that the conference is being funded completely by your participation and through private philanthropy. This conference is nonpartisan and non-sectarian. Accordingly, this is a chance to renew a great American tradition–leadership rising up from the grassroots to invent new directions that sweep away the dysfunction of the past, opening new pathways and possibilities.
We look forward to seeing you in Valley Forge in April!
David Castro, President