Our Annual Program
For more than 20 years, the Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Annual Program has fostered the development of a vibrant network of community leaders across Northeast Victoria, our Border regions and beyond.
The Victorian State Government provided major funding to deliver the flagship Annual Program. As of the end of 2023, the Annual Program will no longer receive any government support.
In light of this news, AVCL needs to resource our own funding for a community leadership program in 2024 and beyond. We are working together with our valued stakeholders, scholarship providers, workplace funders, philanthropics and Alumni to reimagine what community leadership development can look like going forward.
We are asking for your support with a donation to our organisation so we can continue to provide equitable opportunities for community leadership development across the Northeast and Border regions.
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It is now more than ever that we need to nurture our emerging leaders. At a local level, community members are collectively looking for enhanced and structured leadership, in the form of practical and strategic thinking, collaboration, direction, planning, wisdom, and local knowledge. Our annual leadership program creates competent and well-equipped leaders who understand what it takes to lead in a regional environment.
Ask yourself, do you:
Care for your community and want to make a difference?
Want to be connected to the people that lead our North East Victorian communities?
Want to meet like-minded people and make rewarding new friendships?
Seek out new and collaborative ways to support and develop our region?
If so, the Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program is most definitely for you!
AVCLP provides potential and emerging leaders with a unique experiential “learning by doing” program that develops the participant’s personal leadership skills, their knowledge of the region and their network of professional and community contacts.
Each year up to 26 participants who live in the Northeast Victoria and border regions and who represent a diverse range of ages, professions, backgrounds and leadership experience are recruited for the program through a competitive selection process.
The program is undertaken over ten-months, from February through to November, where participants learn through meeting, interacting and working with the region’s finest leaders, through community projects and through gaining skills and knowledge to build capacity as a community leader.
Participants engage regularly to work with outstanding community leaders, whilst visiting a range of places of significance within the area. Due to the ever-changing needs and requirements of our community and cohort, as of 2020 we were able to diversify our modes of delivery, introducing a blend of in-person program days, along with online content and sessions. The course also includes several retreats, where the personal leadership skills of the participants are developed and a number of study tours, where participants are able to meet State and Federal leaders.
There is a variety of different scholarships available that applicants may be eligible for. The eligibility criteria for each scholarship varies dependent on industry, community work, geographic location and a range of other factors. We assess applicants for scholarships once you have submitted an application and attended an interview. We encourage applications from people of all abilities and from our extensive multicultural and indigenous communities, ranges of ethnic and religious communities.
The Alpine Valleys Community Leadership Program covers Northeast Victoria and the New South Wales border regions, comprising the Local Government Areas of Alpine Shire, Albury City, Benalla Rural City, Indigo Shire, Mansfield Shire, Moira Shire, Rural City of Wangaratta, Towong Shire and the City of Wodonga.
“Being gifted with this opportunity to participate in AVCLP through a scholarship has been life-changing.”
Maria Berry, AVCLP Graduate 2017-2018
Further information on the experience on participants is available in the Yearbook.