CAPACITY BUILDING
- Leadership Sin Limites Youth Program celebrated its 5th year with 34 participants and 10 mentors attending a one-week leadership development program. Guest speakers included: Dr. Jose Calderon, Pfizer College, CA; Sam Zamarripa, former Georgia state Senator; and Adrian Bernal, CNN freelance journalist. Deborah Gonzalez was lead faculty; Danny Bivins and Dionne Rosser-Mims facilitated sessions; Amanda McKasson and Debbie Allen coordinated.
EXPLORATION
- The final visioning session for the Barnesville community took place on July 18th. Thirty community members including Gordon College students worked to develop and prioritize themes, and then develop strategies to move the community forward. The final report is being developed. Danny Bivins is the lead faculty and Langford Holbrook is assisting.
IMPLEMENTATION
- Matt Bishop, Jan Coyne, Langford Holbrook, and Skip Teaster are working on the Liberty Regional Medical Center Project to determine what is in the best interest of the hospital for a long range strategic plan. Rural health care is a unique delivery system that is in trouble, but some recommendations are being considered and implemented. Positive results are being seen. Focus groups with Leigh Askew, Jan Coyne, Delene Porter, and Raye Rawls are planned for the near future.
· Project Riverway has completed its 2nd year. The first of its kind, the Project is a three-year multi-disciplinary service learning course bringing together faculty from the Fanning Institute, the College of Environment and Design, and the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication to generate ideas and create plans for improving life along the lower Chattahoochee, Flint and Apalachicola rivers in a way that embraces the culture and history of the region while improving the economic conditions. Students from landscape architecture, historic preservation, journalism, forestry and law combined their efforts to address community needs from Ft. Gaines, GA to Chattahoochee, FL. The course is lead by Leigh Askew and Danny Bivins.
- Danny Bivins and Karen Duncan developed Fanning’s first ever web based visual preference survey for the city of Greensboro. Bivins is developing commercial corridor guidelines and the web based visual preference survey will be utilized to gather community input.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE
· “This is just a quick note to say how much the J. W. Fanning Institute means to me. I graduated from the Gwinnett Neighborhood Leadership Institute in May 2000, took train-the-trainer, mentored a group, and facilitated/trained at meetings. I loved doing this so much that I enrolled at UGA/Gwinnett, graduated with a BSEd (IPTT) in May 2007, and am now preparing to work on my MEd HROD at UGA/Gwinnett. I’ve been working at Emory University as an Executive Assistant while getting my degree and hope one day to devote myself more fully to helping others learn how to make a difference. The time I spent at GNLI and at UGA has been an amazing journey.” Teresa Moon Hauck, Lawrenceville, Georgia.
