Manchester's young leaders commit to community

Participants on Manchester UJIA's Lay Leadership Development Programme pledged their commitment to working within the Jewish community at a graduation ceremony at King David High School on Tuesday 12 April 2011.

They were joined by communal leaders, friends and relatives to mark the culmination of a 12-month long leadership training programme. The UJIA United Jewish Leadership Group course included meetings with senior lay leaders in the Manchester and London Jewish communities as well as sessions looking at leadership styles and theories of leadership in the wider world. The participants were also given the chance to examine their own strengths and weaknesses in a series of one-to-one assessments with a professional.

Each graduate gave a commitment speech stating their aims for the future as lay leaders within different organisations across Manchester including UJIA, the Federation of Jewish Services and the Morris Feinmann Home. The speeches were followed by an address by Sir Howard Bernstein, Chief Executive of Manchester City Council, on the topic of "Leadership."

Programme graduate Benjy Black told the audience: "The leadership programme has not only opened my eyes to the opportunities for improvement that need to happen in the community; it has made me focus on what I am interested in, and taught me that to really work for a cause, you need to truly believe in it.

"One common theme across the sessions is that collaboration is the key to success. The community is not large, and by working together and pooling resources, we can achieve so much more than by each fighting for our own little patch. I hope that our group, the next generation, will take this philosophy further and look at other opportunities to make our community a more united and resourceful one."