Leadership Programs

LRV Programs 2010-2011

Regionalism
The Regionalism team invited our participants to go "Back to School" to help everyone become a Passionate Advocate for the Roanoke Valley. Our day started at Center in the Square with an arts and culture fair that showcased some of the affordable, diverse, quality, arts and culture opportunities in our area. We moved on to Carilion via school buses to tour their Clinic building, enjoy a brown bag lunch, and hear from Daniel Barchi, who showed us that Carilion's impact on the region is much more than just healthcare. We then headed to the Waldron Stage in downtown Roanoke where Pete Eshelman presented how the Roanoke Valley has many close-by nature experiences for people of all ages, interests, and abilities. After some delicious Bubblecake, we ended our day with a Final Exam to test what our participants learned throughout the day, awarding "sweet prizes" to the winning team. Our presentation furthered our participants' knowledge of what makes the Roanoke Valley such a great place, and we encouraged everyone to take that knowledge, along with the resources provided (outdoor resource guide, free passes to various arts and cultural activities, and other printed information) and use it to become a Passionate Advocate for the Roanoke Valley.
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Education
The education team greeted participants at Virginia Western Community College with a driving theme of G.P.S., Gaining Personal Success. LRV Participants joined their teammates in their color-coded event t-shirts and learned what their beginning and ending life scenarios were. Then each team divided themselves into two groups that alternated attending an informative and fast-paced trade show, and visiting the various VWCC classes and departments through a campus tour. After a delicious Chick-Fil-A lunch and dessert prepared by the VWCC culinary students participants were moved by the dynamic lunch speakers of Eric Anderson of Forest Park Academy and John Capps of VWCC. When we returned to the auditorium each team was presented with a life changing obstacle. The teams needed to rely on information they gathered during the trade show and tour to navigate around this obstacle. The day ended with each team presenting their chosen path of personal success and a touching personal story from one of our own, Karen Harris. LRV participants were encouraged to use the resources they learned about during the education program to assist themselves, and others they know, in their journey of Gaining Personal Success.
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Economic Development
What came first? The Chicken or The Egg? "Cracking The Question...Economic Development in the Roanoke Valley"...It was appropriate that our program would begin with a puzzled invitation because the age old question of, "What Came First, The Chicken or The Egg" is not always easy to "Crack". Appropriately, Economic Development (ED) in the Roanoke Valley has not been an easy topic to "crack" either. Our team set out on a quest to find out what the LRV participants, citizens of the City of Roanoke and ED Experts considered being the most important drivers to ED. Through Person on the Street Videos, Surveys and knowledgeable speakers we developed a program that addressed two topics that were declared as Economic growth drivers and are occasionally debated as to "what comes first:" Back to Basics (Business Model) and the Creative Class (Amenities Model). At the Greenfield Education Center, Jim Barney of Click & Pledge gave a thought provoking presentation on how Economic resources in the area are being spent but not always yielding growth. After we toured the new Greenridge Recreation center, Darlene Burcham (former City Manager) and Bruce Bryan enlightened the guests and participants on the Richard Florida Creative Class Model and on the impact and implementation of it in the Roanoke Valley. Since our theme of the day was the Chicken and Egg brand, we ate a great breakfast from Chick-Fil-A, had a chicken lunch catered by Blue Ridge Catering with live music by Mr. David Mitchell and for a snack, a specialty Chicken Donut Cake created especially for our program from Blue Collar Joes. The LRV participants had the opportunity to use the information and knowledge they gained throughout the day to generate their own ED ideas for the Roanoke Valley that would be presented to ED leaders in the area. The focus group discussions were buzzing and demonstrated the interest of the participants as well as their desire to create growth. In the end, the age old dilemma of "what came first" may still exist, however, our objectives were reached and the goal to provoke a call to action was met. We "Clucked the Cluck!" (in a Chicken Suit); hopefully the participants and guests will "walk the walk"!
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Environmental
On April 16th, the Local Government Team of the 25th class of Leadership Roanoke Valley presented a day long program exploring the many aspects of land use. The program location, Camp Roanoke, was a peaceful departure from downtown and corporate locations. Beginning the day with a moment of silence in memory of the Virginia Tech shootings, the Local Government team worked to create a seamless and engaging day incorporating many different elements of land use. Starting off the day, Paul Mahoney, County Attorney for Roanoke County, introduced the group to the role of local government in land use. Mahoney’s presentation was followed by a panel discussion of three local government officials, speaking on land use within their respective jurisdictions. Dan O’Donnell, Jay Taliaferro and Darlene Burcham provided their interpretation, restrictions and roles on the topic. Following our governmental speakers, a panel of three developers had the opportunity to share their insight on the issue. A casual lunch prepared by Camp Roanoke staff was enjoyed in the sun and on the lawn of the Camp. After lunch, a tour of the nearby Western Virginia Regional Jail site brought home the issue of land use and its impact on everyone, regardless of address. Following the jail tour, a final session on land use was presented by three representatives of citizens groups. Emphasizing how and why we should all get involved, these three speakers brought to reality the reasons why people do and should get involved. In conclusion, each participant and advisor was assigned a building to engage in “Build a Community” began. Bringing home all topics covered during the day, this game tied up the sessions and created dialogue between participants. As a call to action, the team offered their own insights regarding involvement, awareness and participation in the community we all inhabit.
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Community Involvement - May 21, 2008

The Environmental Team's program objective of 'Actions Change Tomorrow', simply put, was a call to action. We believed that the complexities and passions around different environmental issues could be divisive. For example, global warming, offshore oil drilling or deforestation has passionate advocates on both sides of the fence. As a team, we felt that leaders in our region could gain more traction, take small steps, and have more buy in by looking at the fundamentals, starting small, and choosing a passion that works for you. Many times these individual and grassroots efforts have more impact in reaching our goals because they become personal. Our program focused on these simple steps. Dr. Diana Christopolus and Mark McCain from Roanoke Valley Cool Cities Coalition shared with us their thoughts and passions around eliminating energy wasters and installing energy savers in your home to reduce the carbon footprint. Greg Lewis shared his passion around the designing and retrofitting a LEEDS certified commercial business and how we might take small components of that to our businesses. As a team, we built camaraderie, networked and fueled our competitive spirits as we collected over 200 pounds of trash in the community. Dan Miles and Ed Hacker from the Roanoke Valley Resource Authority shared their passions about, well.....garbage. We were able to see the operations and logistics around moving tons of trash out of Roanoke each night. At the same time, we did see options and opportunities in recycling not only of aluminum and plastics, but tires, wood, and metals. Finally, we challenged LRV participants and advisors to commit ourselves with a 'call to action'. Of those who answered our program survey, 70% indicated that you would commit to their call and another 27% indicated that 'maybe' we helped them with a call to action. We hope that our program helped you with a hidden passion and we have helped you take a step or two in the right direction that can impact the quality of life for our region.