Convener:  Cliff Jackson

Note Taker:  Kathie Whitt

Participants: Cliff Jackson, Kathie Whitt, Herk Conner, Susan England, and Joe McFarland

Key Themes/Questions/Observations:

•    Reclaiming Vacant Properties conference was recently held in Pittsburgh.  A developer from Flint, Michigan responded that he didn’t know how to attract the next generation of leaders.

•    How do you intentionally cultivate leaders?  In a mid-westerner community, town leaders start on the hay bale committee.  The task of these 12 year olds is to put out the hay bales for the elder leaders to sit on at the town meeting.  From there they graduate to organizing the hay bale committee, etc.

•    One eye must always be kept on cultivating new leadership.

•    Sustainable Communities Training Program offered by Community Collaborative, Inc. (CCI) is an opportunity to cultivate leadership skills.  See Herk Conner, Ritchie County FRN and CCI, for more information to send a community team.

•    Another strategy being used for leadership developed in Ritchie, Doddridge, Gilmer, Pleasants, and Roane Counties is Possibilities Forums.  See Herk Conner, Ritchie County FRN and CCI, for more information.

•    Training must be delivered while people are getting real work done.  Leadership training in isolation is not as effective.  

•    Youth want an opportunity to cultivate their leadership skills.  Ritchie County Schools has been successful in working with 8th grade students.  See Herk Conner, Ritchie County FRN and CCI for more information.

•    The 8th grade leadership program in the schools was paid for four years outside of the school system through grants.  The outside entity is no longer writing the grant and is encouraging the school system to continue the effort.

•    4-H is a very effective leadership development program for youth.

•    Leaders must know their roles or they will not be successful.

•    Currently the majority of our leadership is 50 years of age and up. We are missing the next generation as they are leaving the county to live, work and go to school.  We are struggling because we have lost our 4-H and other youth programs since the 80s.

•    Bringing the programs to the kids in schools is the best way to reach the at-risk group.  It is useful to break the at-risk leaders away from their normal peer group for training.

•    Focus on developing leadership in those in their early 20s.  There are often few opportunities for this age group.

•    Retirees are hard to bring back to the table – especially those that were teachers.

•    Mentoring is essential.  Pair younger people with experienced older people in areas of common interest.  Youth are energetic and older people are wiser – they feed off each others’ energy and at the same time preserving our culture and supporting our youth.

•    Baby boomers are retiring and want to give back.  We have to find things that interest them and ways to connect them.

•    Sports or computer technology offer opportunities for ‘reverse mentoring’ the young serving as mentors older citizens.

•    Engage youth in using technology tools to enhance the work and connect them to community development.

•    Using the electronic story format learned through Carpetbag Theatre at Brushy Fork Institute and as presented here by Ritchie County is a great way to engage youth in developing and making presentations without speaking.

•    Training within the context of producing real work - works!

•    Include teams of youth in planning, not just one or two.  Evening meetings were used most often.  Full-day training sessions were held in the summer and also attended by youth.

•    Extension will travel and do free leadership training for youth.  You must ask.  There are leadership development academies and camps that can be brought to you and your community.

•    Colleges and Universities can serve as resources on leadership and other training opportunities.

•    The National Guard is also a resource for supporting youth.  They have a variety of programs.

•    Prevention Resource Center is a resource for training.

•    Drug-Free Community Support Program, a federal grant is worth looking into.  It is for planning, coordination and evaluation.

•    Drug Free Schools grants can help provide resources for youth leadership development.

•    Law Enforcement (City, State, County and Sheriffs’ Offices)  is a great tool, the offer Prevention Resource Officers and other leadership efforts.  

•    Faith-based community groups can also be very helpful in cultivating leadership.  Bring in outside faith-based groups and talk with them about providing a mentoring component when they do housing rehab and youth camps.  Ask them to engage local youth in partnering to lead.

•    Promote leadership opportunities to communities and emphasize the value of these to communities.  Link Extension, FRNs and other resources to communities.  We need to make a bigger, more intentional effort of connecting resources to communities.

•    Maybe we need to pull together Vision Shared’s Leadership Team and the Leadership Network to get and post a listing of Leadership Programs and resources.

•    A local holistic leadership team is of value.  Maybe FRNs could focus on the redoing the resource directories to include a section on leadership development programs in the directories.  Herk and Kathie will talk with FRNA.

•    We have an obligation and duty to youth to cultivate their leadership skills while we invite them to help us with door to door surveys, etc.

•    Don’t dump youth off without guidance.  We need to be aware of gradual growth and the needs of youth (or anyone new) in a leadership role.  Be aware of legal ramifications.  Support them in their new roles so they will want to continue to serve in a variety of capacities throughout their lives.

•    Include youth as leaders in activities, boards and tasks.  

•    Character Counts is a great leadership training model involving both youth and adults as trainers.  Youth teach youth and adults serve as support.

•    Survival Skills for Women is another excellent training model with volunteerism as a component.

•    We need to create structured opportunities in the non-profit world

Quote of the Week:  Leadership is the act of agitating your friends at a rate that they can absorb.  

(You must make people uncomfortable with the way things are so they want to get things done)