October 16, 2006

The Lee Institute was started in 1997 to honor Bill Lee, who was a remarkable civic leader in our region. Since the inception of the Institute, we have worked primarily within the Charlotte region to promote collaboration around the public good.

We believe that public good is best found when a community seeks out and listens to a variety of voices and opinions. Our work over the past five years has been to help bring wider participation in all types of community work. So, when people ask me: “What DOES the Lee Institute do?” I find myself describing the power of the 1,000 people who came together for the United Agenda, or the growing influence of the Children’s Alliance coalition, and the Foundation For The Carolinas Regional Trail project. All of these are examples of many different parts of our community coming together to address common needs. The Lee Institute has provided process design (i.e., what do you do when you have a lot of different stake-holders in the same room?), facilitation (i.e., once you design, run the meetings), and strategic planning for all of these projects.

We have been so busy at the Institute that we have neglected our website for too long! Our website will now have information for you on our programs and services, the team of folks here, the American Leadership Forum—our flagship program focused on civic leadership—and more general information on community collaboration.

Michael Winer, an expert on community collaboration once said: "if you can do it alone, do it. Collaboration is not the easy path!." Collaborative work is hard, messy, and very, very rewarding. The Lee Institute is excited about the opportunities we have had to be involved with collaborative work and are proud to honor the legacy of Bill Lee’s civic leadership.