Photo courtesy of Carol Bruser.
Leadership Shelby County
The Leadership Shelby County class of 2016.
Each year, a new class of Leadership Shelby County leaders takes on projects to better the community. The class of 40 is divided evenly into four groups, and each group selects their own project to complete before they “graduate” in May.
David Higgins, one of the project leaders and executive director for Easter Seals of the Birmingham, said the county benefits from Leadership Shelby County’s members and a goal to recognize strengths and areas of improvement.
“Anytime you have a body within a county that recognizes the potential of their leaders and recognizes a group that cares enough about where they live to form something like this and have it be as prominent and successful as it has been, that’s a good thing,” Higgins said.
The 2016 Class of Leadership Shelby County started in September, and project leader Chuck Purvis said he has already benefited from the communication between different professions.
“Just in the short time that I’ve been with the other leaders and the other members in the community, I’m certainly glad that I took the step to join the group because it’s been very informative,” Purvis said.
Groups such as Leadership Shelby County, Purvis said, help people step out of their comfort zone and learn more about the county.
“It’s just interesting to get a different perspective because I’ve been working for the same company for the past 27 years now, and it’s very easy to get involved in your little world,” said Purvis, vice president of sales for A.C. Legg Inc.
Blanket Fort Hope
One group of 10 leaders, led by Higgins, is working to support Blanket Fort Hope with its project. Blanket Fort Hope is an organization dedicated to helping child victims of sex trafficking that contacted Higgins about the project.
He already knew about the organization, he said, and working with them was “a natural fit.”
The group plans to create a video, geared toward children between middle and high school age, that will inform them about how to avoid becoming a victim of child sex trafficking.
“We’ll be targeting, there’s certain websites that are attractions to try and lure kids in to sex trafficking, certain types of scenarios that you might encounter, things of this nature that we’re going to be looking at,” Higgins said.
The group has already obtained support from groups and companies in the community, and they will create the video at no cost to Blanket Fort Hope.
They aim to complete the video before May, but the group has also planned for the involvement of law enforcement officers, the district attorney and groups in the private sector in order to update the video and keep the project sustainable.
“We don’t want this to be a one-time thing,” Higgins said. “We want it to go on and perpetuate because unfortunately this problem is not going away.”
Wings of Hope Pediatric Foundation
Another group, led by Purvis, is working on its project with Wings of Hope Pediatric Foundation.
Wings of Hope is an organization that works with the families of terminally ill children. Assistance can range from financial help to meal donations to lawn services.
Before joining Leadership Shelby County, Purvis had not heard of Wings of Hope. He learned about it through one of the local police departments and said his lack of awareness helped fuel their project idea.
“Our whole goal is whatever it takes to get their message out and raise public awareness,” Purvis said.
The group has plans to create a video for Wings of Hope, Purvis said, and they will also develop other promotional materials for the organization. About half of his group has some sort of background in marketing or public relations, Purvis said, and he thinks that will help with their project.
By bringing more awareness to Wings of Hope, Purvis said they hope the organization will also gain more support through fundraisers and therefore help more families. He also said building awareness, rather than focusing on fundraising, is easier to support after they leave Leadership Shelby County.
“We wanted to do something that was sustainable,” Purvis said. “We wanted to give them something that they could take forward and keep using after our group [graduates].”
Kids First Awareness
Michael Cain, manager of Shelby County Water Services, is leading a group project focused on Kids First Awareness. Kids First Awareness is a nonprofit that works to prepare children and their families for the future through education and resources.
Cain’s group aims to expand the network for Kids First Awareness, he said. They plan to work with Cindy Hawkins, Director of Kids First Awareness, to bring in volunteers from the “professional world” for programs at Kids First Awareness. Cain said he hopes these community leaders and leaders of business will do more than just talk to children in the program; he wants them to participate in activities with them and help them build life skills.
“With the [Leadership Shelby County] projects, that’s part of it, is learning not only to lead but being on the other side too, of helping somebody lead a group and contributing to that,” Cain said.
While they hope to bring in several volunteers as part of their project, Cain said his group is also working to keep the project sustainable. That’s why the focus is on expanding Kids First Awareness’s network, he said, where they can reach out to volunteers in the future.
“[We’re] just trying to form a good baseline foundation and framework to not only let this be something our group does for the year, but to try to get something in place to help Kids First have that network of people that they can kind of go to,” Cain said.
