TOMODACHI Alumni RISE Leadership Program Orientation Held on Online for the First Time

 

From March 20 to 22, 2020, the TOMODACHI Alumni Regional Impact for Social Empowerment (RISE) Leadership Program kicked off with a three-day online workshop.  Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the event was changed from an in-person workshop in Tokyo to one online.

Regional Leaders, selected from TOMODACHI Alumni community from six regions across Japan, attended the workshop to gain valuable skills needed to identify and tackle social issues, create events, and bolster their regional alumni communities. This program is a year-long multi-part leadership development program that focuses on social innovation at the local level.

Through group discussions, remarks from guest speakers, and other breakout sessions, the Regional Leaders and Mentors, who are also selected in the same six regions from TOMODACHI Alumni and support Regional Leaders,  began to build relationships — both within their local teams and across regions — based on trust, gained insights on ways to address local community issues while engaging TOMODACHI Alumni, learned about event planning, and worked together to develop visions, goals and action plans for their Welcome and Theme Events

Kenji Negi, Regional Mentor of the Kanto Region, commented, “it was great seeing everyone’s faces, and the topics and issues they want to explore through their events. The guest speaker session was a great refresher on the concept of social entrepreneurship, as well.”

Maho Kitano, Regional Leader of the Kansai-Chugoku-Shikoku Region, commented that sharing their own life events using the “lifecurve chart” helped deepen their understanding of one another. She realized that although everyone has had different experiences in life, not only the good times, but also their hardships made them who they are today. She gained insight on how to be resilient by learning from the difficulties others faced.

The participants began building a sense of community as Regional Leaders and Mentors and had the opportunity to learn firsthand the value of an online format.

The TOMODACHI RISE Leadership Program is made possible by generous support from Prudential.