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The Community Education Coalition has launched an initiative to package and sell the Columbus model of collaborative leadership to other communities and groups that want to emulate its success.

Jack Hess, who helped come up with the concept, has been named the executive director of the new Institute for Coalition Building. Hess will leave his position as director of the Columbus Chamber of Commerce on Oct. 31.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity,” Hess said, calling it an extension of the kind of work he has done for years with the chamber.

Hess’ work with the institute already has begun. In a nutshell, the education coalition is creating a fee-based structure for the outreach service it has provided for free to communities and organizations that asked for it.

The amount of money the institute will charge has not yet been determined, Hess said. However, he said it would vary from one community to another based on need and the level of help that each one wants.

The Community Education Coalition was created in 1997 as an offshoot of the Chamber of Commerce to bring the local educational and business sectors together to foster the development of a better educated and more capable workforce here.

Coalition accomplishments have included the creation of the Columbus Learning Center, which opened in 2005 as a shared learning space for Ivy Tech Community College, IUPUC and Purdue College of Technology and a space for the state’s WorkOne program.

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