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VALLEY — A search will soon be getting under way to select 15 Chambers County residents in the 21 and older age group who are ambitious and have leadership potential. They will be participants in the first class of Leadership Chambers County, or LCC for short.

Ansley Emfinger, a senior project manager for the Chambers County Development Authority (CCDA), discussed this at Wednesday’s noon hour meeting of the Kiwanis Club of Valley.

The mission of Leadership Chambers County is to train, educate and inspire existing and future leaders in our community. The program will consist of seminars, networking opportunities, programs and projects throughout the year to continue growth in the community and foster leadership. Its vision aims to build a pipeline of leaders for the community for generations to come. Through the program, organizers hope to build leaders in the community that will one day run for office, serve on boards and be engaged in volunteer organizations.

Leadership Chambers County is similar to a previous community effort known as Project Leadership. Several of its alumni were involved in the start up of the current leadership effort. The Covid pandemic of 2020-21 had a devastating impact on the local community, our country and the world. A lingering problem coming out of Covid is a sharp decline in participation in civic clubs, church attendance, support groups for schools and other volunteer organizations. Leadership Chambers County seeks to reinvigorate this through the building of a new class of leaders.

“We want this to continue year after year,” Emfinger said. “We will start accepting applications for our first class on October 1st. The deadline to accept applications will be in November, and members of our first class will be named in December.”

To be eligible to participate, an individual must live in Chambers County and be at least 21 years old by January 1, 2025. Members of each class will take part in four sessions. They must attend all of them in order to graduate. Once one graduates from a class they won’t be eligible to participate in another one. Quarterly sessions will be taking place in January, April, July and November. There’s a $500 fee to participate. This will cover the cost of all the programs attended, and can be paid by the company the individual works for. Scholarships will be available as well.

Applications will be available on line starting in October.

Members of the first class will be selected by a panel of people who do not live in Chambers County.

The first session will be taking place in late January. Topics to be discussed include general leadership, civic clubs, race relations and community development. Representatives of local civic clubs will be invited to come to the meeting and talk about what their club does for the community and the overall importance of civic clubs.

Topics to be covered in the following meetings include local government, the local judicial system and jails, the county’s history, public services, local nonprofits, economic development, the local Chamber of Commerce and efforts to promote local tourism, agriculture and industry, healthcare, education, and infrastructure.

Providing input to Leadership Chambers County’s startup were Commissioners Sam Bradford and Debra Riley, Emfinger, Chris Busby, Andie Roberts and Ericka McCullough of the CCDA staff, Extension Director Rachel Snoddy and CVACC Executive Director Carrie Wood. The LCC Board of Directors include Jonathan Herst0n (president), Rachel Snoddy (vice president), Louis Davidson (treasurer), Lauren Dabbs (secretary), Melanie Caldwell, Janet McMillan and Jennifer Crawley.

“We have some great people involved in this,” Emfinger said. “We are really excited about this program and what it can mean for our community. Our first session will be taking place on Friday, January 31st. We’ll have a morning session at Valley Community Center and an afternoon session at the Circle of Care. We’d love to have someone from the Kiwanis Club come of the afternoon session and talk about your club and what it does for the community. We want representatives of the other local civic clubs to be there as well.”

The second session at the Circle will start and 5:30 p.m.