The Stone Soup Leadership Institute
Baltimore Planning Session
November 29, 1999

The Stone Soup Leadership Institute is the learning-in-action arm of the Stone Soup Foundation, a non-profit 501(c)3 education foundation dedicated to providing tools which inspire people to give, serve and rebuild their communities and empower young people to become leaders in building a better world. The Foundation develops educational tools like the book, Stone Soup for the World, and the Stone Soup Leader's Guide. The Leadership Institute collaborates with organizations and companies to provide trainings which equip emerging leaders to enhance public-private partnerships that build healthier communities.

In October, Leadership Baltimore hosted a breakfast to introduce the Stone Soup Leadership Institute to the Baltimore community. Leaders in business, foundation and the community gave us a warm response. In November, we held a planning session with those interested in collaborating with us to develop a Leadership Training program in Baltimore.

People seem to feel that this is the right tiime and place to bring the Stone Soup spirit to Baltimore. There is a strong sense of the possibilities for rebirth in the city. People have a feeling of cautious optimism, mixed with a sober sense of reality. They see the need for people to work together to create the Baltimore that people envision.

The Institute's emphasis on supporting and enhancing the work already underway in Baltimore is perceived as a complimentary strategy. Through our Leadership Training and Fellows program, we bring the Stone Soup fable to life. Using its message as a teaching tool, we help people experience the synergistic power of working together to achieve more than any one of us could alone. By training emerging leaders in Baltimore, they would be prepared to take our inspiring message to their workplaces, schools and neighborhoods.

The Baltimore Leadership Training could be used to strengthen initiatives in the city like:
• Community initiatives being planned by the Mayor’s Transition Team including the Clean Up Baltimore campaign;
• Leadership Baltimore: to more effectively match graduates with community projects;
• Plan Baltimore: to empower the Neighborhood Congress o develop action strategies for issues identified in Baltimore during planning process in 750 neighborhoods;
• The Governor's Initiative: to help build momentum for statewide summit planned for fall, 2000 focused on neighborhood initiatives, crime prevention, services to at-risk youth;

Recommended Participants include:
• Baltimore Mentoring Partnership
• Baltimore Reads
• Center for Poverty Solutions
• Communities in Schools
• Citizens Planning and Housing Authority
• Civic Works
• Hands On Baltimore/Volunteer Central
• Baltimore HealthCare Access Inc.
• Junior League
• New Song Academy
• Maryland Youth Action Committee
• Maryland Student Service Alliance
• Open Society
• Plan Baltimore
• Safe and Sound Campaign
• YMCA of Central Maryland