Class 28 Leadership Projects
Retaining Marshall County Talent, One Student at a Time
Members: Eric Ferguson, Laura Jones, Erin Proskey, Katelyn McGriff, Doug Hochstetler, and Nate McKean
Summary: We created a project which brings both industry and education to the same table. Our hope is that in years to come the project will continue to grow as stakeholders begin to realize the positive gains from this collaborative effort. Through continuous updates to the community and industry partner database we intend to retain a large portion of our local youth to live, work, and play in Marshall County. We worked with the North Central Career and Technical Education Director to gather information on what she needed to grow her Vocational programming. There was a need for employers who are willing to take on students for internships and job shadowing. Our group enhanced an existing CTE Community and Workforce Engagement Survey and then pushed it out to agencies, school counselors and employers regionally. The objective was to gather information from eager organizations that are interested in partnering with the schools and the CTE Program. This database of employers who are willing to work with the schools/CTE will be a valuable asset to both the CTE program, as well as local school counselors. Ultimately, these interested contacts who have completed the survey, will provide the students with internships, job shadowing opportunities and be willing to donate their time to attend middle school/high school job fairs and career “dream days”.
Substance Abuse & the Effects on Marshall County’s Health & Wellness
Members: Janis Holiday, Becca Morales, Jamie Bales, Sarah Thangam, and Shelly Miller
Summary: Through our discussions, our team realized that SUD’s (Substance Use Disorders) are playing a major role in the health and wellness of our county, and it really does affect everyone – of course those suffering from SUD’s, but also their friends and families, employers, and the whole community in terms of safety, funding, resources, and health in general. Our mission became to create a safer, healthier community by advocating for the prevention and treatment of substance abuse in Marshall County. We can achieve this by supporting and promoting the many resources we already have. We are sending an awareness flyer out to all 23,164 households, which contains a QR code leading to the existing Marshall County app. The app’s resource link includes treatment facilities, educational resources, medication disposal sites, and will soon add a list of support groups in the county that we put together with the help of Community Corrections. We will be able to track how many people use our specific QR code to see what kind of impact our project has. Ultimately, we hope that we can help reduce the number of people affected by substance abuse, especially those resulting in overdoses and deaths in our county.
LMC EMERGE
Members: BJ Awald, Lauren Phipps, Delia Salazar, Nathaniel King, Rodney Jacobs, and Josh Martin
Summary: The goal of the Leadership Marshall County EMERGE program is to develop diverse groups of high school juniors of Marshall County through integrated leadership programming and enrichment experiences that equip youth to make an impact in their communities. Our hope is that they will later serve as mentors and give back through service learning partnerships. The program will meet once monthly during the school year and will utilize a curriculum that grows individual leadership capacity, includes a book study, leverages mini-seminars with key community partners, and frames all activities through the lens of the Indiana Department of Education’s employability skills. The desired ripple effect of this program will be multifaceted. First, LMC Emerge will be an additional avenue for adolescents to develop lifelong skills that are necessary for college, careers, and beyond. Not all students are involved in school-based leadership activities, but still have the potential to grow as leaders, and EMERGE can help cultivate those students’ latent leadership potential. The EMERGE program will also intentionally recruit a diverse group of participants to give a better voice to the changing demographics of our Marshall County communities.
Outdoor Places and Spaces
Members: Brandon Calhoun, Jennah Fairchild, Eva Reinhold, and Riley Ganshorn
Summary: For our group project we first had a discussion about Places and Spaces in Marshall County. While each of us felt we knew the outdoor amenities in Marshall County well, it became apparent that there was much more going on than any of us knew about. The discussion led to reasons why we were not aware, and it became clear that there was nowhere available to see all that Marshall County has to offer. While we recognized that each community has a website dedicated to their own Parks and Recreation opportunities, what was lacking was a general overview of what Marshall County has to offer as a whole. Another thing that was missed were the opportunities not included within the towns, including public lake and river access points and State-managed Conservation areas that are open to the public. To remedy this, we did an inventory of outdoor places and spaces in Marshall County and created a short video highlighting each area. Our plan is to offer this to Marshall County to be displayed on the county website as an overview of what Marshall County has to offer in addition to the individual community sites that already exist. We feel that what we have created can be built upon by the future LMC classes focusing on Places and Spaces.
Marshall County Entrepreneur Resource Guide
Members: Jamie Beckwith, Carolyn Crooks, and Anna Jimenez
Summary: Our team collaborated on creating a comprehensive small business guide for entrepreneurs in Marshall County. We worked together through several challenges, including the loss of a team member and managing competing priorities. Through effective communication, delegation, and being adaptable, we were able to complete the project and learned the importance of attention to detail and quality control. Our big dreams for the future include a five-year plan that includes hosting small business workshops and a print version of the guide that can be distributed throughout the community. We want to bring in local experts and business leaders to share their experiences and offer guidance on topics like marketing, finance, and operations.