NYSCAA’s Emerging Leaders Institute (ELI)

Episode Transcript
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Heidi Barcomb, NYSCAA (00:15):
Hello and welcome to Lights Camera
Community Action, a podcastbrought to you by The New York
State Community ActionAssociation or NYSCAA. For
short. My name is Heidi Barcomb,Program and Communications
director for NYSCAA is the stateassociation for New York's
community action agencies,commonly known as CAAs. This
mission is to strengthen thecapacity of the Community Action

(00:37):
Network to address the causesand conditions of poverty. This
code was created in 1987 toprovide CAS in New York with
professional developmentopportunities, training and
technical assistance. NYSCAA isthe hub that brings together
community action agencies in NewYork to network share successes
and challenges and strategize tomeet the needs of vulnerable New

(00:59):
Yorkers. A community actionagency or CA is a local
organization with the mission ofreducing poverty through locally
designed and delivered programsand services targeted to the
specific needs of theircommunity. The 47 CA's in New
York form a statewide servicedelivery system that connects
individuals and families to theservices they need to achieve

(01:23):
economic status. When it comesto moving folks from poverty to
self sufficiency, communityaction agencies know what works.
Today we'll be talking withthree community action agency
staff members who have allparticipated in discuss Emerging
Leaders Institute, you mighthear us refer to the Emerging
Leaders Institute as ELI 1.0,and 2.0. ELI 1.0, began in 2010

(01:48):
to provide high qualityleadership training to build and
enhance the capacity of futureleaders and community action
agencies. In 2011, Eli 2.0 wasestablished to support those 1.0
graduates in taking their skillset higher. The ELI model
involves three sessionsthroughout the year, each being
a two day seminar, whichincorporates formal training,

(02:11):
mentoring and peer networkopportunities. ELI 2.0.
participants develop leadershipskills by identifying a
community need and creating aproject to address the need.
Projects follow the ROMA cycle,a model used by community action
agencies to develop and assessprograms in goals. Roma stands
for results oriented managementand accountability. Today we are

(02:34):
speaking with three recent ELI2.0 graduates who will share
their story with you and talkabout their ELA 2.0 projects.
First, let's welcome Melinda.

Melinda Daniels, CAOG (02:44):
Hi, everyone. My name is Melinda
Daniels. I am the ExecutiveAssistant and Compliance Officer
of Community Action of Orleansin Genesee, we service over two
counties. I've been with myagency for six years now.

Thank you so much for being here with us.
Melinda. Andrea, will you jumpin next?

Andrea Bernard (03:06):
Yes. Hi. My name is Andrea Barnard. I and I am
the Family and Youth ServiceManager at PEACE, Incorporated
Family Resource Center. And weI've been with peace
incorporated for over 13 yearscombined. But in my current role
for two and a half years.

Thank you so much and piece is it serves
the Syracuse community primarilycorrect?

That's correct. We serve Onondaga County.

Thank you for being here. Will you
introduce yourself?

Janelle Hartwell, Delaware Opportunities (03:40):
Hi, everyone. My name is Janelle
Hartwell. I am the CommunityServices Director at Delaware
Opportunities. I have been withDelaware opportunities for going
on 16 years. My first 14 yearswere working in direct service.
In the last two years, I've beenworking as a department
director, and Delawareopportunities. We are the

(04:01):
community action agency thatserves Delaware County.

Thank you so much for being here with us
today. I really appreciate that.I want to jump right in and ask
each of you to talk a little bitabout what prompted you to join
ela 1.0.

This is Melinda Daniels and I was
prompted I received an emailfrom NYSCAA. And I read the
email looked into theinformation. I was very
intrigued when I read about ELIand my goal is to be the best

(04:39):
employee that I can be for myagency. So this was going to be
a learning opportunity and itwas going this this opportunity
was really going to help me moveforward and advance and my
knowledge of my agency Niska asa whole and just learn more and

(04:59):
How I can be better and dobetter.

And this is Andrea Barnard, I could jump in.
For me, I had just started backin at the agency, and I was in
this new roles, and I wasvoluntold. About this program,
and that I needed to sign up forit. And, and I could say that

(05:24):
I'm happy that I was voluntoldabout this opportunity. I've
definitely learned and grownfrom the experience with ELI
1.0. And this is

Janelle Hartwell. Um, for me, it was it
was a combination of a lot ofdifferent things. So as I said,
in the introduction, I workedfor quite a few years here at
Delaware opportunities, indirectservice. And through that I had
grown into an upper managementposition. But in doing that, I
felt that there was really aneed for me to get some in depth
leadership skills, I had done aleadership cohort here that was

(06:01):
offered by executive, ourExecutive Director here at the
agency. And when I had seen thiscome from Niska, I was like,
this is an amazing opportunitycontinue to continue my
leadership growth and myprofessional development, I did
really well with the the clientside of things, but I really
thought I could, you know,enhance my skills on the

(06:22):
programmatic and the side ofthing that could help me be a
better leader in my position nowbeing in a management position
and a supervisory position. Andone of the things coming into my
position is I don't have anyformal education, I have zero
college education. So one of thethings I have worked extremely
hard in my whole professionallife is taking on opportunities

(06:47):
that I can to enhance myself andto ensure that I am doing the
best that I can for myself, myfamily, my profession. And in
doing that, you know, this wasan amazing opportunity and a
challenge for me to take on tobe able to do that, and continue
to enhance that. And I thinkit's in community action. That's
what we stand for, you know, weare helping people become better

(07:08):
people. And for me, I feel thatI am a success of that myself.
And this was just an opportunitythat Eli brought to me to
continue that professionaldevelopment.

And so ELI 1.0, and you've learned a
lot through that session. And,you know, you had opportunity to
move forward into 2.0, knowingthat you would extend those
learning opportunities and havethe opportunity to create a

(07:38):
project for your community. SoI'm curious, because not
everybody chooses to go to 2.0.So I'm curious, what prompted
each of you to join CLI twopoint out,

I think I'll jump in. For me, it
was the continued opportunities,the continued leadership
opportunities, and having theopportunity as a challenge, I
saw it for myself to take thoselearning experiences and make it
into a project, a nerve rackingopportunity, because then you
have to present that project toyour peers in the group and you
have to work through the theROMA cycle. At the same time, I

(08:13):
was working to become a Romaimplementer. So I was doing both
at the same time and being ableto see how they coincide
together I felt was verychallenging. And given that
opportunity to enhance yourleadership skills and a higher
level in 2.0 was was reallyamazing for me.

And for me, I did not want 1.0 To end the
relationships, the informationto the support, that I felt,
attended the meetings, I wantedthat to continue to network in.
And so when I saw a 2.0 was anoption, I jumped right on it. I

(08:52):
didn't didn't was not voluntoldI was like yes. Not the project.
I did not know at that time, butit it pushed me to grow a little
bit more in what I'm doing. So,two point I'm ready for 3.0

This is Melinda Daniels. I agree with
Andrew, Andrea and Janelle. Myexpectation through 1.0 you know
was to was to learn and get asmuch knowledge as possible to
make me a better employee makeme have me be a better person to
represent our agency orcommunity. Once we were into

(09:36):
that. It was a no brainer. Ela2.0 That was a deeper dive and
we were going to take this thenext step forward. I was very
excited and I agree with Andrea.I would love ela 3.0 or an
alumni group, the connections,the networks. And then the more

(09:58):
we dealt with into that, thatalso brought to light, the Niska
affinity groups and I belong tosome of those. And I am so lucky
and so appreciative to havethese groups of people that do
similar roles to me, and I'm notconstantly reinventing the
wheel. If I need something, Ireach out to my connections or

(10:21):
my group, and nine times out of10, one of them has a template
or we brainstorm, it's actually,I guess the best way I can
describe it is, I finally feellike I'm working smarter and not
harder.

That's a great point. So I want to talk a
little bit about the 2.0projects. And I just want to
kind of talk about that theseare projects that anybody
entering 2.0 knows they're goingto participate in, but it is
sort of a blank slate, you arechoosing your project based on

(10:59):
what your community needs. Andin doing so you are following
the ROMA cycle, that resultsoriented management and
accountability cycle thatcommunity action agencies base
their work on. So Melinda, Canyou fill us in a little bit
about that ROMA cycle and whatthat what that process is.

So the Roma's cycle is very helpful
within our agencies. But it'salso very helpful in these are
things that we're doing in oureveryday lives, we just don't
stop to take a step back andanalyze things. We're we're
doing it we're analyzing, wedon't look at it that way. So
these projects, we needed to usethe wrong recycle. So we needed

(11:46):
to assess the community need, weneeded to plan for that need,
come up with strategies andimplement what we were going to
do, then review the results tosee if we were successful or not
regroup if we needed to, if byevaluating the process. It's a

(12:09):
really good tool. And when youthink about the assessing the
planning the implementing theresults, and then you
reevaluate. It is what we doevery day, every day, we go to
work, this isn't working, I needto reassess, I need to replan, I
need to re implement, I need theresults. And if this is working,
that's my evaluation. So theROMA cycle was a very, it's very

(12:33):
good tool. And it was veryhelpful with our projects.

Thank you so much. So you each had your
own project that you created toimprove your community and
address a specific communityneed, and they were all quite
different, and really greatprograms or projects. So I'm
going to ask you if you canshare what your project was and

(12:59):
what your specific need in yourcommunity was that you wanted to
address. Andrea, you had areally great one. And I know
that you really had to use theROMA cycle, because you ran into
some roadblocks as you wentalong. Correct?

That is correct. You use that over and over.

Yeah, will you? Will you share your
project with us?

Yes, yes, Heidi, my project is called wash out
absent. And what prompted me toput this project together was
one of my students. So my sitehas a program that is a
partnership with the schooldistrict. And the kids who are
suspended come to my building,and they get there is like a

(13:47):
home home based program. And ayoung man was absent very often.
And part of my job is to calland follow up with why what's
going on. And the reason theyoung man was not coming to
school is because he did nothave clean clothing. And
immediately went to Walmartpurchase something for him to

(14:09):
come to school the next day. Butknowing this is not something
that could be done, continuallydone. And so came up with the
idea of washing how we couldsupport the families by getting
their clothes washed. And sothat was how I assessed it that
he could not be the only studentthat is going through this. And

(14:32):
then I started the planningphase. And I had recently left
the district, the schooldistrict and I had a co worker
who I contacted and said, Howcould you help me support this
initiative that I would like toput together knowing that my

(14:53):
agency would not have funding toprovide washing the wash Love
the clothes for the families.And so we came up, came up with
five different schools. So shehelped me reached out to the
five schools that had that as athigh risk for attendance issues.

(15:15):
And the goal was to work with 10families from each one of those
schools plus the kids that areat Eastside Family Resource
Center, to get them to a laundrymat weekly, to get their clothes
washed with the intention thatthey will attend school. And

(15:36):
once we tried to implement that,connected with Kalami laundry
mat, which is a local laundromathere in Syracuse, and Onondaga
County, they, their prices couldnot work with what we could
offer. And this is how stuff isso mysterious that the district
had funding, extra funding thatthey needed to spend so they

(16:00):
would be able to support thisproject. So we decided, we
reached out to classic city. Andthey had agreed to help us to
work with us to partner with usto help these families. We Our
goal was 50 families we hadreached out to 100 families at

(16:21):
this point. just word of mouthtalking about it's sitting at
tables, talking about what wewanted to do. And also the
district has staff that helpedcontacted those families that
were missing school. We were allgung ho ready to go have

(16:44):
contracts setup where the familysign, yes, my kid is going to
come to school. Yes, they'regoing to we provided that the
classic city will go to theirhouse, we gave them bags to put
their dirty clothes and we willthey will wash it folded and
return it to them. And then itdid not work. Back, reassess,

(17:10):
reassess, yes, it did not work.Families. 18 of those families
had agreed and signed acontract. And then classic city
will arrive at their door, andthe clothing is not outside. And
so we have to, once again goingback to the drawing board, what

(17:34):
could we do differently. Andafter that reassessment, we
reached out to high schoolers.So high school was done. And now
out of the five school, highschool is a more tend to wash
their own clothes, right, theirparents are not usually doing it
for them. And once again, we gota few. We got a handful that

(17:57):
agreed. They had their parentssupport, and they got it done.
But it has not come to the fullwhat our vision. When this was
put together. I thought it wassuch an awesome idea how many
families we get help helpingthem have clean clothes, helping

(18:17):
them to get to school. And afterit was April, me, we decided
that we're going to have tofigure out what we could do.
We'll have to assess again inthe fall and starting planning
again, and what could we dodifferently.

And I think that that assessment piece
that you're talking about is soimportant that reevaluating, and
I'm going to jump to Melinda fora minute, because I think that
you had a situation with anexisting program that you had to
start with that assessment andevaluation of correct.

(18:58):
Absolutely.

So my project was called Angels in
action, the guiding lightproject, angels and action was a
committee that was formed,fizzled out and reinvented due
to this project. The GuidingLight actually was the name of
the project. And that was anidea that I had, because my

(19:20):
agency and my community needsassessment was showing that the
highest need was domesticviolence. So I chose domestic
violence shelters to support theultimate goal was for us to put
together backpacks for all ages.And all genders, men, women,

(19:40):
whatever the case was, and wewanted to have items readily
available change clothes,personal care items, emergency
items. If you had to leave yourhome and be relocated, and you
made it to that destinationspot. You would have a backpack
with the basic needs at least toget you through the next one. me
for hours. So I just put somefeelers out there. And

(20:03):
ultimately, we ended up with 16individuals that wanted to be a
part of this committee. Andmyself, so 15 Plus myself, and
everybody was on board withsupporting domestic violence.
The stats in the community inthe end, my agencies community
needs assessment. In OrleansCounty, there's a total of 180,

(20:28):
domestic violence victimvictims, and then Genesee
County, there was a total of 405domestic violence victims. And
we service both counties. Notevery single one of the domestic
violence victims goes throughthe domestic violence, shelter.
But the shelter is something Idon't want to say that it's
overlooked because it isn't, butbecause it's quiet, and you

(20:51):
can't know the location. Isometimes it's difficult for
community members and inorganizations to make contact to
donate basic needs. So we weassess the situation, we formed
the committee, we went rightinto planning, what are we going

(21:11):
to get? How are we going tosupport them? I reached out to
both managers between the twocounties and ask them, what is
it that you need because bothcounties are very different? The
needs in Orleans County are verydifferent than the needs in
Genesee County. So now I'mtrying to make both counties How

(21:33):
can I? How can we provide whatthey need when they're very
different? So we went into theplanning phase, we came up with
a good plan. We knew there needsbetween both counties. So then
we decided, Okay, now we'regoing to implement so we
started, we started meetings, wecame up with a logo. Everybody
was doing their part, andeverybody was doing something.

(21:56):
And we ended up providing 40families between two counties
that actually went into thedomestic violence shelters with
the supplies that they needed.We received a donation of 200
backpacks. So we needed multipleitems for various ages. So

(22:21):
obviously, toothbrush,toothpaste, a change of clothes
and clean underwear, basicneeds. And then you think, then
we got into thinking about theage groups, okay, babies need
formula, babies need diapers,these homes, these domestic
violence shelters, they needitems, too. It could be a coffee

(22:41):
pot, it could be clean sheetsfor the beds, it could be towels
shampoo. So we just gathereditems. And at the end of the
project, we reassessed and wereevaluated and ultimately, none
of us wanted this to end it wasvery, very positive. We were

(23:02):
very appreciated for doing whatwe were doing. And just because
it was a project, it couldn'tend just because I met the goal
of elf. We wanted to continuewith this. So to this day, we I
call monthly to the DV managers,and every month they come to my

(23:23):
site, and they pick up a vanloadof items. There's more and more
community members involved inthis word spread like wildfire.
And the needs had changed. Thatthe basic things that we were
sending, were plentiful. Butthen it was brought to my
attention. When you have toleave your home, no matter what

(23:45):
hour no matter what day, ifyou're being abused, typically
you're going to try to call 911You're going to try to call a
family member, you're going totry to call somebody for help.
So then it was brought to myattention when those things
happen. The abuser goes rightfor that person's phone. And
they want to break it. They wantto throw it across the street,

(24:06):
whatever the case may be,because they don't want you
making that phone call.

What a great project, what a great need
that you identified not a greatneed, but a real serious need
that you identified and thenthrough Ely 2.0 project you were
able to address that. AndJanelle, I know that in your
community, you had a verydifferent approach and did

(24:31):
different type of need. Can youtalk to us a little bit about
your project?

Yeah. Hi, thanks, Heidi. So for us,
Delaware County, similar to someof our partner agencies that are
very rural. We are very largecounty. So Delaware County is
geographically the size of thestate of Rhode Island, but we
have no public transportation.So where our main office is
located, makes it difficult forpeople get to get to us and we

(24:57):
had found on coming out of thehill have COVID, we had found
that one of the things COVIDtaught us is we could find other
creative ways to reach out topeople and meet them where
they're at and be able to meettheir needs in a way, that
doesn't mean that they have tocome to us. So in doing that, I
had the idea for our my project,which was developing a satellite

(25:18):
office. So having Delawareopportunities go to one of our
higher need communities that wewere able to find through our
community needs assessment andthrough our census, one of our
higher need communities that wewould be able to set up a
satellite office, to haveDelaware opportunities go there
and bring us to them, whichmakes things a lot easier with

(25:39):
the lack of publictransportation. And some of it
was the fear of people coming onthe heels of COVID. Just being
back out into the community ishow we first started it. So in
going through the ROMA cycle indoing this, I you know, the
planning phase is we're in theyou know, the assessing phase, I
guess we'll start with the firstthing was, we had noticed we had
had less in person, peoplecoming to our agency, Gone were

(26:02):
the days that our lobby wasfull, and people were coming
here. And we had to figure outwhy because we knew there was a
need, right? We knew that therewas still those those same
families still had a need, butthey weren't coming to us. So
and we saw that there was anincreased need of low income
people in the community, but wehad to get creative of how we
could still serve them. Becausea lot of the funding that was

(26:22):
available during COVID was nolonger available. So through
this, I was able to startsomewhat of a plan for what this
would look like. And you know,the first thing, of course, was
just running it by our executivedirector of what do you think
she was highly on board that,you know, it was a great idea.
But the our next barrier wethought might be a barrier is
where do we find a location todo something like that. And

(26:46):
through the planning phases, wehave a CTO workforce and work
development center right in thevillage where we started this.
So I just asked them, they hadalso noticed that they had low
numbers since coming out of theheels or COVID. People weren't
coming back in for jobreadiness. They weren't you
know, they were just noticing.So it went much smoother than I
had anticipated. They said,Sure. When do you want to start

(27:06):
we have space available. We wereable to get that started right
away. And it worked as a greatcollaboration to allow not only
our agency to get this to thisarea, but to partner with our
program. And with the programthat was there. How you know, we
were able to work together andget that happening. And the
biggest barrier, I will say thatwe ran into was just finding

(27:29):
staffing. We the satelliteoffice is open every Tuesday. So
we are open every Tuesday fromnine to three. And a lot of my
staff and the community servicesdepartment do go there. And they
do work that and staffing itonce a week. I think that was a
little bit of a big idea that Ihad and it was a great idea. And

(27:50):
at times it was a little bitdifficult. But I have to say
it's been amazing. We have gonethrough the process. Now I can
say the first month that we wereable to do that was August of
2022. So going into almost ayear, we have served 166 Total
families that have come in andour goal was 10 a month. Now

(28:11):
that 166 families, some of thoseare repeat families. I'm not on
duplicating them. But I thinkthat's a good thing to leave
them the way they are because itdoes show the success that
people know that we're there. Sothey're coming back. So it's not
just a one time out ofcuriosity, they're realizing
that we are seeing, they knowthat we're here, they're seeing
that it's been successful, andthey're coming back. And it's

(28:32):
providing them an opportunityto, you know, if if a program
goes there, and it may not bethe program that they need, that
program is able to help themmake that connection and provide
that warm handoff. If you comein specific for Headstart, let's
say but today housing is there,the housing staff can help you
contact the Headstart peopledirectly while you're there and

(28:53):
provide that information whereyou would otherwise have to
travel upwards 45 minutes to anhour from where we are to our
main office location. We arecoming to them. It's been
amazing as far as theopportunities we've been able to
provide. But on the flip sideNow going on to almost a year of
this I'm seeing where it's at,it's definitely provided an

(29:15):
opportunity for the clients thatwe serve. But it's also provided
an opportunity for our agency tohave an increased collaboration
with other community members andother opportunities in that
community to make ourselves moreaware because believe it or not,
some people don't always knowwho we are, what services we
offer. So it's given us anopportunity to promote our
agency and our community actionagency and all of the different

(29:38):
programs within the community.So it's been a win win
situation. We have been reallyfortunate. And you know, I look
forward into this. Like I said,this will be our first it'll hit
a year mark and August and wewill continue so we're still
continuing on.

Thank you so much for sharing that. And
I'm wondering, Andrea, if youcan talk with us about Oh, I
know that you mentioned how manyfamilies have signed up? Do you
have any information? And youmight not. But I'm wondering if
you have any information aboutschool days missed or if this
project is affecting schoolattendance.

The project is to help increase students to
attend school because they'remissing too many days of school.

Right? And do you know, are you getting
feedback? Have you done anyinformal,

the feedback with the with the kids who have
who did take part, theirattendance is better, which
helped with the classwork. Soeven at the end of the school
year, their classwork wasbetter. That just, it's just for
them. And in school. That's aripple effect. We're and I, I

(30:56):
beat myself up a little becauseI wanted more, I wanted more.
Because if they could just seethat the little has changed with
the few who has followed throughthat they too could be
successful.

Right. One of the things I liked about
your project is that it wasinitially for the students, but
you do include the laundry forall the family, correct. That is
correct. So and Melinda, and I'mwondering if you can talk to us
a little bit about the number ofbackpacks you've handed out if
you've had any feedback.

We have we have received feedback, I
believe, in roughly in total, Idon't have the stats between
both counties, one county versusanother. There have been 40
families, whether it's a singleadult, female or male, or a male

(31:52):
and or female with children.There have been 40 adults served
with our bet with the backpacksand the things that we have
gathered and donated, and about30 children. I have received
feedback from some some of thedomestic violence shelter the

(32:12):
people that had to stay there.And they loved the diapers. They
said the diapers were alifesaver. There was one family
that said the timing could notcouldn't have been any more
perfect. So that family reallyappreciated everything that they
needed was readily available.And then we were even able to

(32:33):
offer. Once the family went andwas able to safely leave the
safe house and transition intoan apartment, we were able to we
were able to help this oneindividual with a vacuum
cleaner, a coffee pot, somelinens for the for the bedding

(32:53):
and some towels and washclothsfor the bathroom. So so far,
everybody is very appreciativethat it looks like we're
definitely meeting a need. Andwe're just going to continue to
do so.

Yeah, and Heidi, this is Janelle, I
wasn't sure. I did do someoutreach, because one of the
things I had not put into my, myplan was in getting those
results and reassessing was wedo programmatically each program
that we do does a community, orI'm sorry, a customer
satisfaction survey. So one ofthe things that I didn't think

(33:30):
at the time not knowing thiswould be successful or not was
coming up with a customersatisfaction survey survey to
get some, you know, feedback ofwhat they think works well, what
doesn't. So, without havingthat, in hindsight, I will start
doing that moving forward as wereach our one year mark, but I
was able to do some outreach,and I was able to get some
specific feedback. So if it'sokay, I can just share a couple

(33:53):
of exact things that people hadgiven. Yeah, please do. Okay. So
one of them said, the fact thatyou're coming here saves me a
lot, I probably wouldn't seeanyone if I had to go to Dollar
higher Hamden. And if youweren't in the satellite office
on Tuesday, I never would havegotten the help. It was
definitely very beneficial tome. A staff person had told me

(34:13):
that their feedback was we canreach out to many more people
who were in need. This helps theclient stress and a less scary
situation than they may alreadybe in. It lessens the stress on
us for them to come out and helpthem get the services they may
need. It helps them tounderstand the paperwork that
they may not be able to do ontheir own and we can explain it
and help them fill it out moreone on one and then we got some

(34:35):
very general having do peoplecall Delaware opportunities do
having do here regularly isamazing. We can't thank you
enough for coming over and overagain. I get thanked for being
here. Clients who don't havetransportation are thankful
because they can walk here.They're so appreciative of not
just me, but the program beinghere in general. So I think it's
been successful and you know,meeting people when they're

(34:58):
where they're at you And I dothink in part of the whole ROMA
cycle, like I said, I do inhindsight, I wish I had
implemented that as part of thatwas in implementing people with
giving us regular feedback. Butso far we've had, it's been
hugely successful.

That's really great feedback. And I
want to, I want to switch gearsfor a minute. Because you know,
the projects are all successful,you're clearly having a positive
impact on your communities. And,and that is, you know, in human
services and social work, thatis a definite goal. But one of
the goals of Eli is to help yoube emerging leaders and develop

(35:37):
your leadership skills. So I'mwondering if you can talk about
how participating in ELA 2.0,and creating these projects has
helped you in your leadershipdevelopment and in your career
path.

And I'll jump in and Tria. In my career path, I
would say, I was put on underagency and peace strategic team,
as one of the up and comingleaders in the agency to plan on
what we're planning to do forthe agency in the next five

(36:15):
years. And to me, that is, Ithink it's amazing that they
even see that within me to signme to be part of the strategic
team for the agency, that theysee the potential that is coming
out of me from attending theseleadership classes. So yes, I,

(36:39):
they see and not only not onlythe agency, but even I'm in a
sorority, and so it's workingworkwise, and in me personally,
seeing the growth that I havegained from being in part of
this. So thank you,

always so nice when your supervisors and
higher ups recognize your growthand and include you in projects.
Right. Okay. And Melinda, you'vetalked with me in the past about
the how you feel thatparticipation in ELI has helped

(37:16):
you grow? Can you share some ofthat?

Yes, absolutely. When I first started
with my agency, I was anadministrative assistant. And I
did feel that it was a littlebeing a little underutilized.
However, that soon changed. Andit was when I wouldn't when I
approached my CEO, my CEO wastelling me, Melinda, you, you

(37:42):
have potential, you're alreadydoing things that are beyond
your title. She was in fullagreement, I really feel that
you, you're the perfectcandidate for elf. So we, you
know, I joined and I've gonefrom the administrative
assistant to executive assistantto compliance officer. And I'm
still, I'm still going up. Wehaven't quite figured out what

(38:06):
that exactly. I'm not tooworried about a title. I know
the direction it's going. But Ihave learned so much. And every,
every time even now, when I'mattending one of my affinity
groups, I'm always bringing backwhat we've brainstormed what
we've shared, what we what I'velearned, and bringing that back

(38:29):
to the whole directors team. I'ma part of the directors team and
everything that they do. Theyappreciate what I'm bringing
back to the table, and I havenow been able to implement what
I've learned, especially withtrainings, and training other
staff. Now I'm now I'm teachingin small groups, chunks of our

(38:52):
staff, things that they need toknow and they need to know how
to do to better support ouragency, especially with CSPG
with Niska, the Department ofState it's been nonstop and some
days. It's a little hard for meto comprehend, but it's all good
stuff. And we just keep thrivingand making things better. And

(39:16):
the more that I stick with theconnections that I've made
through with networking throughally, the better it gets. I'm
very appreciative to have thisopportunity. And I'm just so
happy. I will stay in it to thebitter end.

And to hell. Can you share with us a
little bit about howparticipating in Eli 2.0 and
creating this project has helpedyou to grow and develop your
leadership skills?

Absolutely. Um, like I said in the beginning
for me, I had done a leadershipprogram here at our agency that
was offered by our executivedirector and even for me to do
that and growing into adepartment director where I am
I'm I never saw within myselfthe opportunities similar to I
think how Andrea said, I neversaw the skill set within myself

(40:07):
that other people saw within me,I'm having the opportunity to do
these leadership programs hasgiven me an opportunity to see
my own professional abilitiesand has allowed me to continue
to build on them. And it'sextremely helpful when you have
upper management looking at youand saying, I see something more

(40:27):
in you, I want to push youharder, I see. And I was okay,
being direct service, I lovedwhat I did, I love serving the
people that I did. But knowingthat there was more
opportunities for me and havingthe opportunities like this
through Nesco, with Eli tocontinue to grow as a
professional. And for me, Ithink what it's done and going

(40:48):
through the ELA, you know, 2.0from 1.0 is being able to see
something and the start of itand see that that growth and see
the trajectory and believe thatit does provide you with the
insight for yourself to want andcontinue to do more. And I think
you said in the beginning,Heidi, some people don't go on
to 2.0. And that's okay. Youknow, that's totally okay, what
works for them. But for me, 2.0was continued professional

(41:11):
growth and for me to continue tochallenge myself. And I was able
to see that there's a lot morethat I'm capable of doing that
maybe I was able to recognizewithout the skills that have now
been instilled in me that Itried to pass down to my staff,
and I encourage professionalgrowth within them as well. So
it's it's been an amazingprocess. And that ripple effect
that Andrea had mentioned, youknow, you are able to see the

(41:33):
ripple effect of taking yourleadership skills. And after we
do these things, and sharingthem with others, and just being
able to continue that withinyourself, because I think at no
point do we ever stop learning?And do we ever stop growing. So
having these type ofopportunities allows us to stay
abreast of things that are outthere for us and continue to be
as successful as we are withinour positions.

So we're gonna get ready to wrap up and I
want to close with this onefinal question. And Janelle, I
think that you really kind ofled us to this question. What
words? Would you now that you'vefinished, Eli 1.0? And 2.0? What
would words of advice or whatwould you suggest to someone who

(42:17):
is considering enrolling in theNiska as emerging leader
Institute?

This is Janelle. And for me, I would
say absolutely take theopportunity. I would just you
know, if anybody had come to meand said, if one of my staff
were to come to me and said, Isaw this, what do you think?
Should I do it? I would sayabsolutely. This is an amazing
opportunity and take it and runwith it.

And that's right, what would you
say?

Yes, this is Andrei, I was said jump in with
two feet. Just jump in. It's anawesome experience, you will
just grow and learn from it.

Belinda, I know you have something to say
to people who are consideringit.

I encourage Eli every chance I get
especially with our staff. It isone of the best things that I've
ever participated in for myagency, where I've learned the
most I've grown, you justembrace everything. And as long
as you use what you're taught,you can only go up, I wouldn't

(43:27):
strongly encourage, I don't wantit to stop. I love the group. We
just got to keep moving forward.But absolutely 100% As long as
you your heart is in it for youragency, and you don't plan on
leaving anytime soon. This isthe best thing for you to do.
Take this class.

Thank you so much. So I think that that's
a great way for us to end oursession of Lights, Camera
community action. And I want toonce again, thanks, Janelle. And
Draya and Melinda for joining usand sharing their experiences
with Emerging Leaders Institute1.0 and 2.0, and the ROMA cycle

(44:07):
and how they use that to puttheir projects together. So
ladies, thank you so much forjoining us today. We really
appreciate your time and yourknowledge. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Bye bye bye

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