The Community Leadership Institute, or CLI, is a free program designed by TPB staff to engage participants (community leaders) in discussions about transportation planning in the Washington region. Through role-playing and mapping activities, CLI participants learn about how transportation projects are planned, funded, and implemented. One goal of the CLI is to empower community leaders by helping them learn about the transportation planning process. Understanding the process helps community leaders understand where and when their input can have the biggest impact.
One participant’s main takeaway from the Spring 2019 CLI was that, “we’re one big region and all connected.” Each session includes presentations and interactive discussions or games. The idea is to help community leaders learn about transportation planning in our region by putting themselves in other people’s shoes. One activity asks participants to play the roles of agency staff working to fix traffic problems and account for future growth. The challenge is to imagine a future with a million more people and a million more jobs. Where should they go? How can we connect them? How can we pay for it?
Former TPB Chair Kathy Porter — who is also a former member of the WMATA Board of Directors and former Mayor of Takoma Park, Maryland — has moderated the CLI since 2008. She has seen many participants over the years. “They become immersed in the role play and in the tabletop exercises about planning and funding transportation infrastructure and operations,“ she said. Working together to solve similar challenges, participants find common ground across jurisdictional lines. “I have seen good discussions among participants from different states and localities as they discover how points of view vary between jurisdictions.”
Overall past participants have said they enjoyed the program. It has helped them to “think regionally, and act locally.” It has introduced them to people from different walks of life who represent different parts of the region and exposed them to a diversity of people and ideas.
Fall 2019 CLI participant Vincent Fusaro said the program exposed him to different layers of complexities that, “I may not have considered earlier.”
Other alumni have said they felt a greater sense of regionalism. “I felt more connected to the region at large beyond my community,” Maria Cecilia Pinto de Moura explained.
Porter says, “My hope is that this will lead to more educated public discussions about future transportation options.”
CLI got its start in 2006 as a way to help leaders connect the interests of local communities and the organizations they serve with the challenges facing the entire metropolitan area. In that time, more than 300 people have participated, including elected officials.
The Fall 2019 CLI will be held on the evenings of October 30, and November 5, 7 at the COG offices in downtown D.C. Statements of Interests can be submitted at mwcog.org/CLI through October 11.