IGH equips and connects leaders across continents who will challenge street homelessness at a local, national, or global level. The weeklong IGH Leadership Symposium supports mid-career leaders in the field by strengthening skills in individual and team leadership; building your local network of stakeholders; mapping local resource and fundraising opportunities; problem solving; testing and improving new ideas; and analyzing local data to become more effective at reducing homelessness. In addition to building on skills specific to solving complex problems, IGH seeks to make the Symposium a space for leaders to reflect, build a peer network, and find inspiration from global leaders.
In 2016, IGH piloted a Leadership Program with leaders from Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Kenya, Slovakia, and South Africa. Based on feedback from this pilot, in late November 5-9, 2018 IGH offered an evolved program for a new cohort of 16 leaders, in partnership with DePaul University’s School for Public Service and Pat Bombard of “Vincent on Leadership: The Hay Project,” based at the University.
Sessions were be built around the following principles, assembled by the IGH Board and tested with thought leaders and advisors across the world:
- Cultivating strong individual leadership;
- Building your local network of stakeholders and working as one system;
- Mapping local resource opportunities, effective advocacy and communications;
- Collecting and effectively using data; and
- Building an effective response that includes a focus on the most vulnerable, assertive outreach, and addressing inflow as well as outflow.
Each day included a session on leadership, a session on one of these themes, and an inspirational speaker or site visit.