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Dekalb County community members can explore leadership as member of this year’s Leadership Dekalb class.
Leadership Dekalb program begins in September 2024 and will run through May 2025, followed by a graduation celebration in June. Director Leigh Fuson said Leadership Dekalb, a branch of the Dekalb Chamber of Commerce, began in the 1990s.
“It helps to train people that are willing to be involved in the community, weather that’s in a leadership position or even in their workplace or their organizations or civic organizations or churches or schools, whatever their involved in. It helps them learn the different aspects of the community,” Fuson said.
The class is a once-a-month commitment where each month it has a different theme based on the sectors of the community. Fuson said depending on the theme, volunteer leaders and businesses attend the meeting to speak on their role in the community.
“One month will be dedicated, uh to education, one month is emergency services and our local heroes, um, one will be economic development, um community resources, really anything. Just learning the ins-and-outs of the county,” Fuson said.
Each year, the class begins a community project in which they have one year after they graduate to finish.
“I think it kind of helps, uh, motivate them to get involved and to take an active role in their community,” Fuson said.
Projects depend on what the class is passionate about that year, Fuson said, her project being repairing a senior citizens building, others being organizing county-wide events or improving parks in the area. Fuson said some past Leadership Dekalb graduates are even showing up as leaders in the community, as office members or volunteering.
“So again, this is just my second year, but I actually went through the program, um, in 2019 and then they asked me to kind of head it up, um, last year,” Fuson said.
The program costs $225 and seeks twelve dedicated participants and requires a written a written application is required which includes a demonstration of current or future leadership potential.
