Principal Investigator:
A.J. Faas, Ph.D.

Project Team:
Chelsea Halliwell, Stephanie
Monterrosa, Jamieson Mockel,
DeDe Patterson, Ailea Scheffler,
and Elaine Foster

Project Partner:
CommUniverCity
Additional funding provided by the Laura Good Grant for Undergraduate Research

Description:
CommUniverCity is a collaborative partnership between the San José Council District Three neighborhoods (Comm), San José State University (Univer), and the City of San José (City). The San José Council District Three neighborhoods are home to roughly 96,000 residents, the majority (nearly 2/3) of whom have been identified as low income. This primarily Latino and immigrant community represents a key part of the shifting demographic profile of San José. District Three communities are also home to many grassroots leaders with ties to CommUniverCity and who have been engaged in protecting and developing their communities. Yet, as generations of community residents succeed one another, so too do generations of leadership. Concerned with the future of grassroots leadership in District Three, CommUniverCity has partnered with the Department of Anthropology at SJSU to develop a study of community leadership. Specifically, this study is designed to understand: (1) the attributes, capacities, and resources of established community leaders; (2) the attributes, capacities, and resources of emerging community leaders; (3) community leadership needs; and (4) the degree alignment between community leadership needs, established leadership, and emerging leadership. Ultimately, the study will attempt to determine how community members and leaders best work to foster the development of leadership to meet community needs. Because recent work on leadership has highlighted that there are different types of leaders in terms of the roles they play in the community network (e.g., conveners, thought leaders, and process facilitators), this study is designed to inductively determine what kinds of leaders exist in the community, what kinds of leaders are emerging, and the extent to which emerging leadership profiles correspond to established leadership profiles. Also, because leadership capacity is largely a product of community capacity and institutional and political contexts, this study will seek to identify the factors that facilitate or inhibit leadership capacities. Finally, because leadership capacities are appropriate to different needs, objectives, and contexts, this study will identify community needs and objects and explore the extent to which established and emerging leadership profiles correspond to these needs and objectives.