Teaching Community‑Rooted Leadership for Social Impact

Advanced Leadership for Social Impact Fellowship – Queen’s University

Role: Dan Hendry (Faculty & Instructor)

Year: Not specified

One of my most rewarding experiences in leadership development was being selected as faculty for the Advanced Leadership for Social Impact (ALSI) Fellowship at Queen’s University. ALSI is a certificate program designed for professionals working to address complex social challenges, and my role was to share practical insight drawn from years of community‑based work.

As part of the fellowship, I was invited to develop and deliver a session titled “Community Solutions for Social Impact.” The session was structured around a deceptively simple but challenging question: how do you move from a strong idea to a real, community‑rooted solution?

In designing the session, I drew directly from projects I had worked on over the years. Rather than framing these initiatives as polished success stories, I intentionally broke them apart, walking Fellows through the thinking, decisions, missteps, and relationships that made the work possible. My focus was on how to meaningfully engage with communities—not simply by consulting them, but by learning to listen, recognize existing strengths, and identify opportunities already present within a local context.

A core part of the session explored how to build and sustain partnerships. I shared approaches to working across sectors—between government, non‑profits, educational institutions, and community organizations—and discussed why collaboration is essential when addressing complex social issues. We also examined how to think about impact beyond outputs, emphasizing reflection on whether initiatives are creating meaningful and lasting change.

Another important component focused on narrative and communication. I encouraged Fellows to think critically about how they describe their work and how storytelling can translate complex challenges into messages that resonate, build support, and inspire action.

Teaching within the ALSI Fellowship was a deeply reflective experience for me. It created space to step back from practice and articulate lessons learned through experience, while supporting a group of emerging leaders working across diverse fields. By sharing practical tools and lived experience, my goal was to equip Fellows with approaches they could adapt to their own communities and social impact goals.

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