The Kingston QUnited group, a set of six managers from across the university participating in the Foundational Leadership Program (FLP), are looking for staff members who actively volunteer in the Kingston community.  

As part of their Action Learning Project, which provides an opportunity for participants to apply skills developed throughout the program, Kingston QUnited aims to understand Queen's staff's role in supporting our community. After seeing Principal Patrick Deane’s Report on The Conversation, the team set forth working towards their goal to leverage and support Queen's staff volunteerism in the Kingston community.

“On behalf of Principal Deane, I am pleased to support this initiative of our staff members. Community engagement is a priority for Principal Deane and volunteerism reflects the positive social impact a university can have beyond its four walls,” says Heather Cole, Chief of Staff and Legal Advisor in the Office of the Principal.

After conducting external research and preliminary interviews, the Kingston QUnited team is now looking for university staff who are actively volunteering in the Kingston community to understand their experience. 

“We know staff members around the university are active in the Kingston community,” says Nathan Cheney, one of the team members. "We want to talk to some of those people and better understand their motivations, their experience, and what the university can do to better support themselves and other individuals like them." 

“Our team was thrilled to see the university recognize the importance of, and commitment to, volunteering within The Conversation. Queen's has the potential to establish a model for staff volunteerism within the post-secondary sector,” says team member Corrine Beckner. “We're excited to leverage the passion of fellow staff to inform our proposal. As a collective body, we have unlimited potential to give back and engage with the Kingston community.”

If you are an active volunteer in the Kingston community and Queen's University staff, please consider completing this short questionnaire and offering your time to be interviewed by the Kingston QUnited team. To learn more about the Foundational Leadership Program, visit the Queen's Human Resources Learning and Development website. 

For more information, reach out to Scott Compeau.

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The Foundational Leadership Program is an initiative of the Organizational Development and Learning (ODL) unit of Human Resources. It provides employees an opportunity to network with other Queen’s managers and to integrate advanced management skill acquisition with leadership development.

The current FLP cohort’s projects include:

• Connecting with Queen’s
  This project explores the creation of an online application meant to foster networking between university staff. The platform will provide a holistic opportunity for staff to meet people from outside their home department, discuss and brainstorm challenges and opportunities, and develop solutions to problems that arise throughout positions with similar responsibilities.
• Flexible Work Arrangements for Queen’s Employees
  This project explores the implementation of flexible work arrangements to accommodate the needs and preferences of the current and upcoming workforce, while committing to and enhancing Queen's financial and environmental sustainability.
• Kingston and Queen's United Staff Volunteer Framework
  This project is developing a business case to leverage and support Queen's University staff members' volunteerism in the Kingston community. 
• Managers Pandemic Response Training Guide
  The objective of this project is to develop a set of high-level questions and content areas in order to create a “manager’s handbook” for crisis response. It will provide guidance on managing issues related to human resources issues, workspaces/working from home, managing mental health, operating procedures, IT concerns and more.
• Queen’s University Administrative Fellowship (QUAF)
  The QUAF matches graduate and postdocs students with university administrative units and research institutes for an internship experience with the goal of revealing them pathways to alternative careers in academia.
• Sustainability Professional Certificate Program for Queen’s Staff
  This project is proposing the creation of a Sustainability Professional Certificate Program to increase education and engagement of sustainability among Queen’s staff. It explores financial requirements, awareness/communication plans, a pathway to integrating sustainability objectives into departmental PDP’s and programming requirements for the courses.

For more information about the FLP, visit the ODL web site or email ODL’s learning team.