In the news
New program helps ministries develop leadership
Bruce Soderholm
Special to ChristianWeek
NIAGARA FALLS, ON—Denise Gillard was at a crossroads and she knew it. Hopeworks Connection, an innovative not-for-profit organization in Toronto that empowers youth through music, had begun with a flourish, grown quickly and was facing the same challenge that all ministries and similar ventures face once initial growth plateaus: sustainability.
“We [had] this really great program and things that we’ve built for youth, but we were missing a lot in terms of infrastructure,” says Gillard. Enter FreeForm, a capacity-building program targeting ministries and organizations like hers to help develop leadership and enhance viability.
FreeForm is the collective brainchild of Janis Ryder of Ryder Consulting and Clayton Rowe of World Vision Canada. Paul Magnus, former director of Tyndale Seminary’s leadership program joined it in an academic partnership.
On October 15 FreeForm launched in Niagara Falls, Ontario at the Mount Carmel Spiritual Retreat Centre. The centre is also the site of FreeForm’s first residential retreat, a three-day event for the program’s first cohort of six leadership teams.
At the opening Ryder spoke of her “passion to build capacity within Christian organizations, and to see them realize their potential.” Capacity-building, in layman’s terms, is about helping organizations become what they were meant to be through strong governance, strategic planning and program development, fund-raising and marketing strategies, teambuilding and efficient financial and human resource management. Research suggests mastery in these domains is key to the long-term effectiveness of any organization or enterprise.
Bridgeway Foundation and World Vision are the primary financial backers of FreeForm,
subsidizing two-thirds of the sign-up fee for approved participants. The Catalyst Foundation is opening a bursary program to reduce the remaining costs up to 50 per cent.
Bridgeway spokesman Brent Fearon says he is sold on FreeForm’s merits because of its partnership expertise and its “expanse.”
“This isn’t a fly-by-night program,” says Fearon. “This isn’t a one-day seminar that brings [charities] in and does a mind dump and then leaves [them]on their own…. This is a serious long-term growth project which just increases the potential for success exponentially.”
