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By David Willard

How do you make an impact in a community? What does it take to initiate real change that can be felt in an area? What can one person do? These are all questions asked by an individual when they look at their community and want to be a part of pushing it into a future that they and others can be proud of. They were also questions analyzed by The Clemmons Community Foundation, and the results are a new initiative in Clemmons that will work to constantly answer those questions for Clemmons residents.

The new Leadership Lewisville-Clemmons has been adopted by The Lewisville-Clemmons Chamber of Commerce. The program is designed to build community leaders out of community residents and give them the tools to start not only answering the above questions for themselves, but also set them on the road to making their own community impacts. The new program will begin its initial session in October with an exciting new curriculum for 20 selected community applicants.

“As the foundation (Clemmons Community Foundation) conducted its community assessment, it discovered several things along the way including a desire among residents for greater connectedness and awareness of their community.  Leadership Winston-Salem (LWS) is a fabulous program that focuses its participants on Winston-Salem, but residents of Lewisville and Clemmons did not come away with a deeper understanding of their community,” says Sandi Scannelli, president/CEO of the foundation.

“The result of this survey was, of course, The Leadership-Lewisville Clemmons program. The program, designed after several successful leadership programs across the country, will run for approximately nine months and will feature an exciting curriculum carefully designed to capture the essence of what it means to be a community leader. “The challenge of any new initiative is how to offer a new program of high quality at an affordable participant fee. We are grateful that Novant Health and Marzano Capital Group stepped in as lead sponsors to help us launch at an affordable inaugural program fee. Accomplishments to date — a high quality curriculum developed by local subject matter experts and seasoned professionals,” continues Scannelli.

Although the program is designed after other like-minded initiatives elsewhere, the impact it looks to make in the local community is no less substantial. “The program’s success will result in inspired, excited participants who will volunteer for community leadership positions and/or work together to tackle opportunities equipped with the tools and knowledge to advance community and organizational goals,” Scannelli concludes.

The Leadership Lewisville-Clemmons will run from October 2019 to June 2020. Applications are already being accepted. These selected individuals will then be well on the road to not only improving themselves, but also making their local community a better place.