Cultivating Leaders and Strengthening Communities: Insights from Your Town Alabama
The Mathews Center participated in Your Town Alabama’s annual workshop from April 3rd to 5th at Camp McDowell. Your Town Alabama is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to equip participants with advanced leadership skills, supported by information and planning tools, that can be used to shape the future of Alabama. The organization has impacted over 1000 Alabamians for 26 years through these annual workshops, and the DMC team is proud to have joined this year’s cohort.
Your Town Alabama is a participatory leadership training designed for the intense engagement of citizen leaders and professionals. During the 2.5-day workshop, over 60 civic leaders from across the state participated in lectures, case study presentations, and interactive group problem-solving.
At the onset of the workshop, the leaders running the workshop divided everyone into smaller groups of about ten participants. Each group was handed several large maps depicting a hypothetical small town in Alabama, a roll of tracing paper, a box of markers, and an instruction booklet. Each group was then sent on its way to a cabin where they were to work together in an intensive community design process. The workshop culminated in group presentations by sharing how each team chose to design their community.
Each group remained together in their cabins as they worked through the various challenges and tasks that come along with any community design process. Groups first created a shared vision for their hypothetical small town followed by identifying the priorities and goals most important to the citizens of their communities. For example, one group, who chose to name their small town Acorn, Alabama as tribute to the largely wooded areas in the community, identified preserving their town’s history, culture, and values as being their town’s main priority. They then used that priority to guide the future decisions they made as a group.
The Your Town Alabama workshop can be summarized as a community planning and leadership crash course. The DMC team gained not only leadership, design, and planning skills during the 2.5 days spent at Camp McDowell but also teamwork, communication, and community-building skills. DMC Executive Director Rachel Mosness commented on her most important takeaway from the workshop, “Overall, this community design process wasn’t just about the maps we presented at the end. The entire workshop allowed us the opportunity to connect with community leaders, exercise our ability to work together, and ultimately demonstrate how a community is strengthened when citizens are engaged. I know if I had designed a town by myself instead of with my team, I never could have come up with the amazing ideas that we did together. Your Town Alabama reinforced my belief that strengthening community engagement is the way forward for Alabama.”
Your Town Alabama provides essential skills to all who participate, with teamwork being one of the most important. Your Town Alabama Board chair Matt Leavell shared how one of the most valuable lessons learned from this past workshop was, “... the quality of a community is developed through intentional collaboration and a respect for each other.”
Again, Your Town Alabama offers a unique opportunity and experience that is beneficial to everyone, while providing an opportunity for Alabamians to gain skills that will benefit the state's future!