0:04 a leader is someone that uh I don't mind
0:06 following or someone that'll teach me
0:09 more than I already know someone that
0:12 will help me to help someone else I feel
0:16 a good leader must be able to see
0:19 further down the road than the folks
0:21 that he's trying to lead a quality in
0:23 good Community leadership is standing
0:26 for what you believe in but also that
0:28 when you make a mistake in your decision
0:30 that you man enough want say hey I made
0:32 a mistake we going on the wrong path
0:42 leadership Rural America today faces
0:45 staggering problems to solve them each
0:47 Community needs leaders who understand
0:49 the people and the
0:52 situations our state capitals and
0:54 Washington can't and shouldn't fill all
0:57 of our needs for us first we should look
1:00 to ourselves for leadership because some
1:02 surprising new leaders are emerging in Rural
1:04 Rural
1:07 America Jackie Wartman is an individual
1:08 who particularly comes to mind I've
1:10 known Jackie for several years and have
1:13 known her to be a very progressiv minded
1:16 uh sensitive and concerned individual
1:18 particular when it comes to the needs of
1:20 disadvantaged people and I've seen
1:22 Jackie as the type of person who has
1:25 both the concern and the energy to try
1:27 to do something about
1:30 it I sit out to help people and I end up
1:33 helping them I do door knocking voter
1:35 registration and basically I go to talk
1:38 to people just to see if they have any
1:41 problems that I could help them
1:44 with we really didn't had no Road
1:48 through here it wasn't a passable but
1:50 since Jack and those been working on it
1:53 they the one got this road through here
1:56 she has well for for the fact I said she
1:58 worked on this road she pushed P you
2:00 know she went around and she got
2:02 everybody to communicate with her to get
2:09 here and this lady was saw funeralized
2:12 today oh Lord she have did wonderful for
2:16 that lady she was in that old house down
2:18 there and then I don't know have y'all
2:21 saw the house or
2:23 not but she worked and worked and worked
2:26 till she got her in that trailer but
2:28 when we pulled it out she started crying
2:31 and even the day we moved her in she
2:33 started crying that day and she said I'm
2:35 actually going to sleep in my house and
2:36 I said yes you're going to sleep in your
2:39 house and after that Sheryl and I went
2:40 to different communities and different
2:43 churches raising monies and we raised
2:45 enough money to buy all the stuff that
2:47 was in her house and she enjoyed
2:49 everything and every time we came in she
2:51 would say there come my children I first
2:53 met Jackie she was working in the church
2:54 and doing various things in the
2:57 community that impressed me with her uh
2:59 her ability to work with people and her
3:01 concern concern for people and I thought
3:03 that that uh uh leadership quality that
3:06 she had could be greatly enhanced if she
3:09 developed uh a few more skills that she
3:11 needed then as we moved her into
3:14 Fairfield United action as she became
3:16 part of the organization she came to
3:19 understand a broader Vision a vision
3:22 that was about how we improve an entire
3:24 community and now she's understanding
3:27 not only a community but a state and a
3:30 nation as her vision broaden
3:32 and it feel like that I'm doing
3:33 something that I was put here for and I
3:37 didn't realize my task until I met John
3:39 and kamayu and they taught me how to
3:41 organize and I went out into the
3:44 community and I began door knocking and
3:45 it just gave me a good feeling that I
3:47 was actually doing something for other
3:55 myself the Laurel Community which is
3:58 made up of several Creek valleys on the
4:01 on the far side of Madison County is
4:04 isolated I think because of that
4:07 isolation the people there have retained
4:10 a lot of the values that the mountains
4:13 are known for yeah Mars Hill where my
4:15 mom and dad went is about 30 35 miles
4:18 you know and uh I remember spending
4:20 maybe all day going take my mother or
4:24 daddy there to get medical care and
4:26 theyd spend the whole day and my mom
4:27 especially she'd be exhausted when she
4:30 get home and I felt it must a better way
4:32 than that so that's how come me get
4:35 involved again leaders often come forth
4:37 when they realize a deep personal need
4:40 is shared by their neighbors farmer
4:43 Dennis Tweed is an example he helped
4:45 bring a medical clinic to his isolated
4:48 Mountain Community I guess uh being a
4:50 dreamer as I am I just could uh like to
4:51 see a better
4:54 facility Dennis learned that money was
4:56 available for a new Clinic if the
4:58 community would pitch in and buy the
5:01 land when we've had the first meeting we
5:02 said at the meeting we were going to
5:05 have a medical center of some sort we
5:07 didn't know how big or how fine or
5:09 whatever but we intended to have one
5:10 everybody got involved we had many
5:12 volunteers who was excited as I was in
5:14 fact everybody was chomping into bits
5:16 the night before we set out on the
5:17 fundraising drive because they wanted to
5:21 get started the next day and uh you get
5:23 the people work together and there's not
5:25 very much you can't accomplish you know
5:27 and we had that we had 100% coroporation
5:30 I don't know if one person that I uh
5:32 approached or worked with or came in
5:34 contact during all that time that was
5:38 negative about it because um some would
5:41 give 20 cents some give $20 some uh my
5:42 neighbor brought me I believe it was
5:46 $600 to my house so uh everybody gave
5:48 something though those
5:52 people I think were drawn out in the
5:55 process because of the the need and
5:59 because they saw that this facility and
6:00 this progam program this health program
6:03 was going to be theirs they were able to
6:06 to get those points across in in a
6:07 language that was familiar with the
6:11 community people and so I think the
6:15 process and the the uh the product of
6:17 this process Drew those people out of
6:19 their their
6:31 leaders
6:33 one of the keys to community leadership
6:36 is persistence never giving up the
6:39 Dunbar Community never wavered from its
6:41 dream of a community center even though
6:43 it took years to
6:47 realize Forest Pitman a disabled Bakery
6:49 worker joined the Dunbar Community
6:51 Development Club soon after moving to
6:54 the area within a few years he was
6:56 elected president and set about to find
6:58 a way to put a building on land the club
7:01 already owned he was convinced that just
7:04 because people live in the country they
7:06 shouldn't have to give up certain things
7:09 I think it was in 1975 we had wrote Mr
7:13 Joe maretic of the state legisl Ry for
7:16 some fors to help and he wrote his back
7:18 and said money was a little bit scared
7:19 but when to come available he would
7:22 think about it so in 84 I was a delegate
7:24 to Democrat convention and I met him in
7:27 poison and I talked with him after that
7:30 he came out here and he told us that he
7:33 thought he could get us some help so in
7:37 85 he got us a $40,000 masching Grant
7:38 but it would had to be used in a
7:40 historical type
7:42 building and that money would have to be
7:46 matched by US Forest contacted local
7:48 agencies for assistance and he went to
7:50 the public library to look up names and
7:53 addresses of foundations that might help
7:56 and it takes some hard work and most of
8:00 all you don't give up we have wrote a
8:02 lot of foundation we got announc that
8:05 they was unable to participate at this
8:08 time after all they thought it was a
8:11 good project but we didn't stop riding
8:13 we just kept on writing you you have to
8:16 to keep on pushing you can't give up on
8:19 like that I look at far Pitman as being
8:21 a leader that had not been
8:24 unveiled I think that his role with the
8:28 Dumar Community has unveiled his
8:30 leadership abilities
8:32 for example when we got the grant of
8:34 $40,000 that was mansion and everybody
8:37 just said well gosh we can't do it far
8:39 Pitman said we can do it we must do it
8:40 and it's
8:43 done okay you pin that right
8:47 there this Center serves as a light it
8:50 says to community leaders that with good
8:53 planning working your plans and being
8:56 persistent that you can have a success
9:00 story I look at this Center as as being
9:03 not a final accomplishment of the Dumar
9:05 Community but I look at it as being a
9:12 things this used to be
9:15 the community organizations succeed when
9:17 everyone feels they're a part of what's
9:20 Happening that's the case at the kohari
9:23 intertribal council where the emphasis
9:26 is on the group not the individual Jane
9:29 Jacobs is council president
9:31 our people has always had a lot of Pride
9:34 and they've always stood independently
9:35 you know of themselves but yet they've
9:37 always seen the need to stand together
9:40 too uh to work together uh any your
9:42 people if you find if you give them a
9:45 goal that they want to obtain they work
9:47 hard together to get it done they're
9:48 easy to work with kind of people you
9:50 just got to tell them exactly what's
9:51 going on what it's all about and what
9:54 it's for yes I checked the water PH in
9:57 it and it's fine since we had all that
9:59 rain it all looks good they're eating
10:02 real well and there's no disease you
10:04 haven't detected any disease on the fish
10:06 or anything whatsoever catfish Farms are
10:10 a new idea in Samson County the council
10:12 created a demonstration project to raise
10:14 money for tribal needs and to set an
10:17 example for
10:19 individuals she persuaded me to take
10:21 this job I said I know nothing about
10:24 agriculture but she said we'll learn she
10:27 gives me the freehand to try different
10:29 ideals that I have like if I say I think
10:32 this will work better than what we have
10:34 learned from the workshop she'll say try
10:36 it to me that's the
10:39 leader someone that's willing to give
10:42 you your space to try to expand as well
10:46 as themselves I like to push people
10:48 rather than lead a person I like to kind
10:50 of be behind the scenes and tell them
10:52 they can do it and get them you know to
10:54 apply themselves to it and and try it
10:56 because I believe that anything you want
10:59 to do you can do it I've noticed
11:00 something in Jane that I've always
11:03 admired she goes out for the underdog
11:06 the person that she sees that's sort of
11:07 shy and don't want to do those are the
11:17 push you have to get above the point of
11:19 just looking at self and being concerned
11:22 about self and looking at what can we do
11:25 as a community as a whole a lot of folks
11:29 out there have skills to be leaders
11:31 they often don't know that they have
11:33 those skills they don't believe that
11:37 they have those skills a key piece of a
11:40 training program like Community Voices
11:43 is to bring folks together to explore
11:46 how they can change their communities
11:48 and understand the power that they already
11:54 possess communities do benefit when new
11:57 leaders come forth and share their ideas
11:59 and energy the greater good comes When
12:03 leaders help bring along other leaders
12:05 Community Voices strongly believes in
12:08 this idea of growing new leaders
12:10 Community Voices is leadership
12:13 development to make this happen all over Rural
Chrome Extension