i everyone. Time to brag a bit about the Hilltop.
One of the officers just gave his final report on his High Performance Leadership project. His goal was to increase the awareness of the Club with the Prison Administration by expanding the speaking opportunities for the members, which would have the side benefit of increasing the number of awards in the Communication Track achieved by the members before they “Go Home!”
This was set up as a one year project for calendar 2014. In many ways it resembles a Speakers Bureau that the Administration could call on, with additional benefits for participants.
The leader worked with the Public Health Service serving the prison to assist in the Orientation meetings that all new arrivals have to take. The goal was to provide speakers covering HIV, STD, Hepatitis and Previous Illnesses. He assembled a team who took training in each of these fields, used a standard speech developed by the PHS which was adopted by the team members to their own style and speaking strengths.
They committed for six months during which they trained for two months, then took one month to present on one of the four programs, moving on to the others for the remaining three months. They were then committed to train the next group of speakers. This amounted to at least one and maybe as many as four orientation presentations per week.
The success of this effort was recognized by the counselors from other fields involved in Orientation, and so the program was widened to cover these areas as well.
The Top Level administration took note of this, in addition to the national and international achievements of the club, and began requesting club members for various meetings and events on their schedules. For instance, the Prison conducts quarterly, or more frequent, “Summits” at which they invited local business and community leaders to on-site conferences and learning sessions about the role of the prison in the community and how these links can be enhanced. Toastmasters have assumed most of the educational and some of the discussion leadership roles in these events.
Likewise, the Educational Department of the Prison has been involving Toastmasters in leading and conducting many of the classes and lectures for the department after training in specific subject matter.
Just another example of how Toastmasters in a Prison setting is fulfilling our motto of “Where Leaders are Made”!
keep in mind that membership in this club is very fluid with the average duration less than 2 years. If they can do something this great, let the rest of us try to hold up our end.