GREENFIELD — Chantel Fowler has a soft spot for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Hancock County. It’s no surprise given she serves as executive director of the agency that serves about 100 playful, energetic kids each month.
When asked what kind of community project she’d like to do as a member of this year’s Leadership Hancock County class, picking something that benefits the center was a no-brainer.
Fowler suggested creating a sensory room for the Boys & Girls Clubs in Greenfield, addressing a need she knows all too well.
“We have so many children with different emotional needs that we felt this was a great need and will serve so many children,” said Fowler, who has teamed up with four fellow class members to bring the project to fruition.
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Leadership projects are nothing new to LHC, which will graduate its 25th consecutive class this spring. The projects have always been a part of the class structure, a model that is utilized by similar organizations nationwide to foster and encourage community leaders.
What is new is the practice of letting class members choose their own projects. In the past, community leaders proposed projects that were vetted and selected by a committee of the LHC board of directors.
While that method was successful — and generated a number of projects that still serve the community today — this new method gives class members the ability to be more personally invested in the work they do, said Donnie Munden, LHC’s president emeritus and day-shift commander for the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department.
“The onus is on them to come up with a decent idea that can have an impact, something doable, something that takes effort and thought and teamwork,” he said.
Recent projects have included designing a kid-focused recycling program; creating a clothing bank at Mt. Vernon schools; and putting on a bike rodeo to promote bike safety, to name a few.
This year’s projects include developing the Boys & Girls Clubs’ sensory room; creating a backyard space at the Talitha Koum House; designing a concrete pad to facilitate storage for the Greenfield Youth Baseball Association; assisting with interview rooms at the new Zoey’s Place Child Advocacy Center; and facilitating a bee ordinance support initiative.
The majority of leadership class projects are picked up and utilized in the community, said Munden, like the welcome signs on the outskirts of Greenfield and the Little Free Library boxes throughout the county.
“One of the most notable projects is the creation of the green, yellow and white Hancock County flag, which was designed by a Leadership class,” he said.
Cindi Holloway is thrilled to see the “mural playbook” she helped create as a member of the 2017 LHC class being used on a regular basis by the Downtown Greenfield Mural Committee, which is currently working on bringing a second mural to town after the first was unveiled in 2018. The playbook is frequently pulled out and referenced in meetings, said Holloway, who now serves on the mural committee.
"It’s fulfilling to know that this project has already generated a mural in Greenfield and will facilitate even more art entering the public sphere," said Holloway, who is business manager at the Hancock County Public Library.
Instilling a sense of accomplishment and community pride are two huge benefits of Leadership Hancock County’s community projects initiative, said Jason Wells, LHC’s program coordinator.
He’s been thrilled to see the enthusiasm among class members as they’ve created and pursued their own leadership projects.
“Based on our own experience and feedback from other counties, we’ve found that participants have better outcomes when they are fully invested and can buy into their projects,” said Wells, the professional and organizational development coordinator for Hancock Health and a 2018 LHC graduate.
“We have found, at least to date, that this approach has been successful as each of the five groups developed their action plans and started contacting the appropriate people right out of the gate,” said Wells, who is eager to hear the groups present their projects at LHC’s graduation banquet in May.
When they graduate, LHC leaders hope to see not just five progressive community projects but an entire team of graduates eager to go out into the community and practice the leadership skills they’ve learned since the class started back in August.
Each fall, a new leadership class of professionals from all parts of the county kick off the year with a two-day retreat that introduces them to the program, to each other and to a handful of community leaders who will usher them through the year.
The class then meets monthly for a full day of learning, observing and networking, meeting with various agencies throughout the community and making connections they might not otherwise have access to.
“I grew up here and had been patrolling these roads for 20 years when I went through the class, and I learned a lot,” said Munden, who has been involved with the LHC program for the past decade.
The leadership class format is used in every county in the state, he said. “The program originated through a Lilly Endowment grant to make better leaders and to foster civic-minded people to get involved and learn about how to serve on boards of nonprofits and various groups throughout the community, hopefully to nurture the next generation of leaders.”
Although many class members, like Fowler, are already leaders in their own right, there is infinite value in the learning and networking aspects of the program, Wells said.
Fowler is thrilled to be working on a “dream” project for the Boys & Girls Clubs that she might not otherwise be able to do.
“I think the opportunity to do projects like this is amazing,” she said. “Organizations get so overwhelmed with day-to-day emergencies that sometimes the ‘dreams’ and ‘needs’ of the organization are not able to be met,” said Fowler, who feels the LHC projects and meetings offer so much more than a networking tool.
“It inspires people to want to do more, help where help is needed and be a key component in making Hancock County better and better,” she said.
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Jane Barton, Daily Reporter
Danielle Farmer, Hancock Health
Chantel Fowler, Boys & Girls Clubs
Dawn Hanson, Greenfield-Central schools
Garren Harter, Hancock Health
Amy Kirkpatrick, Hancock Health
Alisha Love, NineStar Connect
Kristen Martin, Jane Pauley Community Healthy Center
Robert Mattsey, Indiana Farm Bureau
Paul McNeil, Hancock County Public Library
Ciara Nienhaus, Hancock Health
Margaret North, Hancock Health
Keith Oliver, Hancock County Sheriff’s Department
Shane Osborne, NineStar Connect
Tamra Parrish, Hancock Health
Cathy Riley, Hancock County Public Library
Metta Sanders, Greenfield Banking Co.
Tammy Settergren, Eastern Hancock School Board
Joel Shores, Joyner Homes
Rebecca Trebley, Hancock Health
Melissa Watson, Hancock Health
Theresa Werking, St. Thomas Catholic Church, Fortville
Amy West, Hancock County Sheriff’s Department
Erika Whittington, NineStar Connect
Dan Worl, city of Greenfield
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