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Leadership Lee for Adults
| Name | Georganne M. Kirven | | Situation | The Lee County Economic Development Alliance and the Lee County Chamber of Commerce expressed an interested in having an adult leadership program for the county. It had been many years since the community had a program. These two organizations and Clemson Extension Service collaborated to offer the program. The purpose of the program was to develop well informed and contributing leaders. The program would also provide the participants with the opportunity to meet with experts as they explore local history and important issues within the county. | | Response | The three organizations conducted several planning meetings to design the program. The first session was a retreat at the R. M. Cooper Leadership Center. The participants identified their personal behavioral profile and participated in team building activities. The second session focused on economic development. During this session, the class went to Columbia and met with the Department of Commerce. They learned about the different
departments and various funding programs available through the Rural Infrastructure Fund and the Community Development Block grants. Part of the session included an interactive presentation by the South Carolina Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism which included a review of an existing tourism marketing plan and how the development of such a plan can assist Lee County in examining its image, identity and direction to determine what changes can be made to draw visitors to the area. In addition, the participants learned about Small Business Development Centers and what it takes to make a county competitive in today's global economy.
The next session focused on workforce development. A tool known as "work keys" was presented to the group. The next session focused on health care. This topic drew a lot of interest because Lee County does not have a hospital. The primary community health care provider, CareSouth, and Emergency Medical Services presented information. | | Impact | Evaluations were conducted at every session. The narrative comments express the impact of the program. The comments regarding the retreat included: I will be more aware of my natural character traits and those of others; I will pay more attention to characteristics of co-workers; and I will use the information provided for assigning task force members.
When asked how they planned on using the information from the economic development session, comments included: establishing a merchant's association and getting involved in downtown business start-up; being more active in the community and going back and looking at what needs to happen next.
When asked what knowledge/information/skills they learned from the workforce development session, the responses included: the importance of work force upgrade and key scores; that it cost more to incarcerate than educate; and workforce investment overview. Open-ended questions were used to evaluate the health care session. When asked what they plan to do as a result of this session, comments included: utilize EMS information in my church's health care program, assist the community in any way
possible, research further health care program in Lee County, utilize services, talk positive about these county assets, get more involved or encourage others to get involved with health care and refer more persons to CareSouth and be a spokesman for EMS.
This program is on-going. The group will graduate in early June 2005. We are very proud of their involvement. This year's graduates will design next year's program. |
Last update3/19/2008
This website is maintained by Tomika Orgbon.
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