Vermont gathers leaders for important dialogues

by Sarah Eisele-Dyrli

January 14, 2009

In June, we included a note in an open thread about a meeting called “Vermont Leadership at the Crossroads,” which drew about 40 “historical leaders” from the city to discuss the future of leadership in the rapidly changing community of Burlington, Vt. Wanda Hines, the co-coordinator of the Burlington Legacy Project and head of the Social Equity Investment Project (SEIP), discussed how drastically Burlington has changed since her youth. When she was young, there were few black families in the community. Now, 25% of the students in the public schools comprise ethnicities other than white European and over 45 languages are spoken in the schools. Because of this, the community is expected to continue to become even more diverse, especially because they are a refugee resettlement community. Wanda organized a meeting in November between the “historic leaders,”  those who have traditionally held leadership positions in the community, and the “emerging leaders” within the community, those who may have traditionally been overlooked for historical leadership positions, but who are taking the lead within their communities to make them work for everyone. The reason she brought these two groups together was to look at how the leadership can adapt to the incoming members of the community, many racial and ethnic minorities, and ensure that everyone has a voice in the decisions that affect them. Wanda sent us an update about how this project is going, and we wanted to share it here.

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On Nov. 25, 2008 the Social Equity Investment Project (SEIP) hosted their second gathering to benefit the Vermont Leadership Institute’s  Social Equity Scholarship Fund (SESF). The event was organized by Wanda Hines and the SESF planning committee. SESF is committed to those constituencies that have traditionally been excluded, underserved, or marginalized in our communities.

The theme was: Vermont Leadership Promoting Inclusion. The event featured co-facilitators Hal Colston, director of NeighborKeepers and founder of Good News Garage, and Thomas R. Tremblay, commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety and former Burlington police chief. The host sponsor was Main Street Landing along with co-sponsors Burlington Legacy Project, United Way of Chittenden County, Opportunities Credit Union, andSnelling Center for Government.

Approximatley 50 dedicated community leaders attended including individuals from the Burlington School District, law enforcement, the judicial system, Association of Africans Living in Vermont, University of Vermont, Vermont Community Foundation, Vermont House of Representatives, the City Councilor, and many more.

The event was extremely successful and reconfirmed the importance of providing new and emerging leadership with the tools to create communities that work for everyone.

Before leaving, community leaders were asked to share what they thought the groups next steps should be. They included:

• Organizing social gatherings
• Expanding the dialogue to communities that are still struggling to come together
• Investing in the infrastructure to strengthen the workforce in the community, especially through building bridges with employers to address issues of racism in issues of employment
• Organizing monthly breakfasts to keep the dialogue going
• Deciding on a strategic project that will engender/develop community leadership
• Developing relationships between historical and emerging leaders in order to build a solid foundation to address the many problems facing our communities
• Walking our talk by supporting the non-traditional leaders within the group

Two important questions were also posed: How do we get the pulse of different communities? Where will we get the resources to gain this information?

Vermont is not unlike many parts of the nation where demographic change is occuring rapidly. We are seeking to foster new leadership that will include those leaders who may not be identified as typical leaders. The group was encouraged by the conversations throughout the day and left feeling hopeful that they can continue to foster important conversations around the difficult issues facing Vt. communities. Leaders in Vt. are committed to working toward communities where everyone has a voice and the community works for everyone.

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Since their November meeting, Wanda has organized a casual gathering of the group in March so they can build relationships. She is also planning another meeting for June that will continue the conversation from Nov. The group is also planning a fall retreat, "Vermont Inclusive Transformational Leadership," where the group will look at how to practical implement power sharing, how to restructure their racial equity lens, how to include nontraditional leaders in decision-making, and how to continue to learn and grow rather than maintain the status quo. Overall, Wanda and the other leaders in this group are interested in fostering transformational leadership - leadership that will ensure that all concerns and views are considered in the dialogues that occur through the process of making their community work for everyone.