Engage Winona Wants to Train People for Public Leadership
Southeast Minnesota benefits from Run4Rural training for nonpartisan elected offices

WINONA — In a nondescript storefront on the eastside of Winona’s downtown district, Engage Winona offers up a different menu of products than most of its retail neighbors: block parties, community listening sessions, leadership training to name a few, all in an effort to build a resilient community.
Engage Winona is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization that aims to build a deeper pool of homegrown community leaders.
Founded in 2017, Engage Winona has its roots in the former Blandin Foundation Leadership Training program. Attendees from Winona returned home and asked 500 community members what was needed locally. The answer was an organization that could train, support and help community members get involved in their community.
“We’re here to solve problems through civic engagement,” said Executive Director Marcia Ratliff, “to get people involved where they live — the place they call home.”
Isabel McNally, Program and Communications Manager at Engage Winona, added that civic engagement is about people coming together to shape the places where they live, work and belong.
“At its core, it means finding ways to participate in community life, whether that’s sharing ideas at a neighborhood meeting, volunteering with a local group, or lifting up community priorities in conversations about local decisions,” McNally stated in an email.
“Civic engagement leads to civic health, the idea that communities are places where people feel a sense of belonging, where neighbors trust one another, and where everyone has an opportunity to contribute.”

Engage Winona Executive Director Marcia Ratliff talks with community members at a recent meeting. (Photo by Cloey Jo Walsh)
The need for rural leaders is great
Engage Winona’s latest effort is Run4Rural, a regional workshop designed to prepare leaders for elected nonpartisan offices in government – school board, township supervisor, city council, county commissioner and other forms of public leadership, including appointments to boards and commissions.
According to Benjamin Winchester, a Rural Sociology Educator at the Center of Community Vitality at University of Minnesota Extension, 1 in 21 individuals in a county like Winona need to serve in positional leadership (both elected and appointed), as compared to more rural counties, where 1 in 11 must serve. Winchester documents his research in the paper How Many People Run Our Towns?
The report on Positional Leadership Across Urban and Rural Minnesota, based on the assumption that every government agency requires five people to serve, concluded:
Positional leaders are crucial components of our communities and there are many governmental positions – both elected and appointed – to fill. In Minnesota there are 87 counties, 853 municipalities, 1,780 townships, 333 school districts, and 590 “special” districts which provide oversight functions related to water, sewer, cemeteries, highways, airports, fire protection, soil and water conservation, and hospitals. This amounts to a total of 3,643 governmental agencies requiring leadership. Of the 4,389,033 residents in the state over the age of 18 (eligibility for positional leadership) we find that 1 in every 241 people in Minnesota need to serve as a government leader.
Winchester also notes that there are 31,603 registered nonprofits across that state that also require leaders. He concludes that 1 in every 23 people in Minnesota needs to serve as a nonprofit leader.

Community members participate in a creative engagement program with Engage Winona. (2023 photo by Blake Darst)
Engage Winona’s McNally says that positional leadership may sound intimidating, but it really just describes different ways to be involved in shaping decisions in the organizations and groups that support our communities. Being on a PTA, county advisory boards or community foundations are all examples of positional leadership and ways for someone to support their community.
“Run4Rural helps community members build the skills and confidence to step into local leadership,” according to McNally. “Through tools like storytelling, communicating shared values and practicing meaningful community engagement, participants will learn how to bring people together and shape decisions close to home.”
Run4Rural, in Winona October 3-4, is a collaboration between the Winona State University Civic Center and West Central Initiative, which recently completed workshops in Fergus Falls. The training is useful for people who want to deepen their civic participation, regardless of whether they want to run for office or not.
October’s day-and-a-half program, held at Winona State University, is open to residents of Winona, Houston, Fillmore and Wabasha counties. A cohort of 30 participants will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Enrollment is free, although there is a fee for those presently running for public office. Details and application information are available here.
Topics include:
- The role of local nonpartisan elections
- Personal motivation to serve
- Communicating through stories and shared values
- Community engagement that brings people together

Community members attend a grant writing workshop hosted by Engage Winona in 2023. (Photo courtesy Engage Winona)
History of engagement
Marcia Ratliff says that some people feel left out of civic engagement – a sense that they don’t belong here – and are looking for meaningful ways to get involved.
In Engage Winona’s brief history, it has a strong record of bringing people together. In August, it hosted a Winona Together evening where community members came together to discuss issues they identified as important to them. The program goal is to remove barriers to engagement.
“We usually self-select who we want to interact with rather than meeting people with different life experiences,” explained Ratliff. “Here we encourage people to talk to someone they don’t know.”
Winona Together is just one of many ongoing efforts to get the community involved. Community Block Parties offers an evening of fun where neighbors meet neighbors; Winona Kitchen Table focuses on housing and homelessness, and Lived Experience Leaders provides leadership skills training.
Engage Winona is committed to the idea of civic engagement and community building through dialogue, support and training.
Save the date! Engage Winona and Project Optimist will host a community conversation on Housing on Thursday, September 18, at 5:30 in Winona. It’s open to the public and will take place at the Winona History Center.