Inspiring Leaders Inspiring the Region
It’s hard to believe we’ve passed the mid-way point in 2024. July feels a bit like a brand-new year in the non-profit world as we begin our fiscal year, celebrating the accomplishments, and challenges of the prior year and anxious to start on the goals ahead.
We are often so forward-focused that we don’t take the time to appreciate where we’ve been. I wanted to reflect on something that made this year extra special. May marked the culmination of nine months of learning, connecting, and being inspired by the possibilities of regional leadership and the continual reminder that this area’s unique opportunities make it the ideal place to call home. I was lucky to be a graduate of the CIVIC Leadership Institute and part of 2024’s best class ever.
To summarize nine months of learning in one blog post is impossible, but I do want to share how much it reaffirmed my commitment to our region and my firm belief that the trails have the power to transform communities. Our class was made up of an amazing cross-section of leaders and industry experts across Hampton Roads, living and working from Franklin to Elizabeth City, NC. Each month we explored a different facet of the region from Tourism, the Military, the Environment and impacts from sea-level rise to Public Health, Economic Development, and Housing and Infrastructure. Ranging from a visit to Jefferson Labs, a tour of Historic Fort Monroe, a day at Naval Station Norfolk, and a guided tour of a submarine with our service members to a public health day with simulated patients, cutting-edge technology an eye-opening view of our children’s mental health crisis and an unforgettable poverty simulation exercise at ForKids, the days were packed with panelists, and subject matter experts who were each committed to bettering our region.
While each CIVIC student could certainly make parallels each month to our own industry, the class came to know that without fail, I would say something at every session that related back to the ERT. We say it again and again, but we absolutely sit at the intersection of so many pressing issues facing our region. Yes, we are recreation, but the trail serves as infrastructure, public health and wellness, a mental health outlet, a commuter pathway and community connector for the military, an equity builder, and at the front door of sea-level rise a way to be a global model for coastal resilience and the leading element of flood protection. The ERT Foundation will continue to plan, program for, and advocate for the trail to be so much more than a trail. I believe my classmates came to know the trail in a different way.
Each month as we talked about how to attract and retain talent in Hampton Roads and grappled with the issues that have long plagued us as 17 municipalities in one region, we talked about the social determinants of health at play that determine positive or negative health outcomes. “They include the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, as well as the broader systems that shape everyday life,” I can’t help but see the Elizabeth River Trail and a growing network of regional trail systems at the heart of that. Everyone deserves safe access to green space and trails can indeed transform communities.
The CIVIC experience was one I will always be grateful for. Not only for what I learned and how I was able to experience my region but for the people I met who are selfless and inspiring leaders all committed to this place we call home. Like many leadership programs, the class commits to completing a project together that will, hopefully, make a lasting impact. Our class rallied around the importance of regionalism; action as one community for the good of us all. Putting aside differences, long-held institutional challenges, and even pride in making the hard decisions that will lift us all.
I’m very proud to have been part of the collaborative effort to make a short video on regionalism. In the next month or so, you will see the ERT boldly identify their mission to connect to the Virginia Beach Trail. I hope that you’ll watch this video and that you’ll see us all as part of the larger whole, stronger as one.
