Your Town Alabama: Designing Our Future

The counties in white (5 counties) represent the only areas that a Your Town Graduate is not a resident. (Help us to fix that next year!) (click the map for a larger version.)

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Your Town Alabama 2007 Workshop Success

The recent June Your Town Alabama workshop had quite a coalition of folks from the Black Belt of Alabama. Black Belt Mayors received a rural grant from Auburn University and sent 9 people from the Black Belt to participate in Your Town Alabama. Here are some of the comments from those participants:

Eddie Woods, Mayor Forkland: “This experience has motivated me to be a more aggressive and positive leader in my community”

Butch Alvin King, Council member Linden: “You can live in a town for many years and overlook a lot of assets available. I learned about possible grant and met many people from around the state willing to help.

William Curry, Council member Linden: “The Your Town leadership workshop experience has broadened my perspective on how to get problems resolved and allowed me to make valuable contact for networking and grants.”

Cecil P Williamson, Mayor Demopolis: “All communities large and small are going to experience change; the Your Town Alabama experience reinforces the importance of rural areas having a vision and a plan.”

Aliquippa Allen, Demopolis Historic Preservation Commission: “ This workshop reinforced the theory that a community with common interest and the willingness to learn, get involved, and work together will truly flourish.”

Sadie Stanford, Mayor Faunsdale: “Your Town Alabama opened my eyes to see the great assets we have in Faunsdale and what we can do with a little money.”

Glen Haab, Alabama Southern: “A remarkable experience that opened my eyes to the value of networking and the importance of preserving our natural and cultural resources.”

Kelley Smith, Demopolis Chamber of Commerce President: “It was an eye opening experience to learn the many different aspects of city planning and problem solving. I can definitely apply this to my job at the Demopolis Chamber of Commerce.”

Kathryn Friday, Marengo County Extension Coordinator: “We know the problems in our communities, we often overlook our assets. Focusing on what is good can help us build better communities.”

Bobby Graham, Mayor Gilbertown: ”best information gathering session I have ever attended, I did not want it to end.”

As you can see this was a positive leadership experience for all involved and we will be looking for more members of the community to attend next year’s event. If you feel you would like to attend please contact your mayor or council member.

Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham's Planner Robyn Jackson also attended the workshop. She said, “I am excited about coming back and applying all the information I received to my everyday life as a professional planner but the workshop is beneficial to Elected Officials, concerned citizens or anyone who has a vested interest in the communities in which they live.”  “The sessions were all enlightening and ranged in topic from Natural Resources to Finding Resources,” Jackson said.  The format is designed to allow participants the opportunity to share their opinions, ideas, and knowledge and apply that to the planning process.  After participating in the two and half day workshop, most participants are ready to take all the knowledge received and use it in their communities. 

for a slideshow of some of Thursday's activities, click here.

 

YT AL 2007 Class. Photo by Elizabeth Salter.