Last month, the Leadership Fargo Moorhead West Fargo class unveiled their Community Change Initiatives (CCI) projects. These CCIs apply and reinforce the skills and insights gained throughout the program while allowing participants a chance to envision, develop and bring to fruition real and lasting community change in collaboration with others. Each group presented their work and plans to the community at Eide Bailly before embarking on the annual Hidden Gems tour throughout town.

Career Exploration Day
(top left) Drew Hushka, Travis Cleem, Deb Balzer-Plagemann, Samantha Hultin, Katie Ralston, Rob Remark (not pictured)

Career Exploration Day set a goal of helping 10^th graders learn more about careers they might be interested in pursuing after high school. By creating a resource guide that highlighted various jobs, companies, industries and educational paths, students can learn about opportunities that exist within our community and select a professional she/he would like to shadow. This initiative was very successful, as we have nearly 40 local professionals who will be hosting students for a four to eight hour job shadow this spring.

Impact Network FM
(top left) Amy DuBois, Adam Massie, Calley Campbell, Matt Walstad, Chelsey Ewen, Joe Hoffman

Impact Network Fargo-Moorhead aims to provide periodic networking events for local non-profit employees, board members or volunteers to meet professionals with skills in technology or digital marketing. In doing so, we help non-profit organizations find someone they can contact to address their needs related to websites, social media, graphics, SEO, CRM, donor databases and more.

Work in Progress
(top left) Tracey Klobuchar, Nichole Wischnak, Rebecca Darling, Brian Standridge, Althea Bain Fick

The Work in Progress workshop is a half-day seminar focused on increasing mental health awareness and outlining strategies for supporting staff by building healthy and productive teams. This workshop will target supervisors/managers with limited exposure to mental health. The workshop will be held on May 2 from 8 a.m. to noon. Registration is free and available on Eventbrite.

Plant a Tree for You and Me
(top left) Rob Hall, Kristen Lotvedt, Amber Blomberg, Tyler Brandriet, Whitney McDaniel, Pan Shao

The vision of this program is to help the fast-growing FMWF neighborhoods increase green spaces and build up community care and friendships. We have planned an event for the Woodhaven neighborhood on May 11 from 10 a.m. to noon. We will plant an additional 30 trees with the Fargo Park District at Woodhaven North Park. The event will have music, snacks, giveaways, family games, and tree education and care. Our goal is to enhance community green spaces in order to increase neighborhood connectivity and strengthen families in the Red River Valley.

safeTY jacket
(top left) Diana Chase, Roxanne Mullenberg, Stephonie Broughton, Jason Nelson, Darcy Kasprowicz, Jarred Nygaard

The safeTY jacket program, in partnership with the North Dakota Autism Center, Inc., Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Fargo Police Department and West Fargo Police Department, provides emergency information about individuals with autism to local first responders. This is a voluntary program for parents/guardians to provide information about their loved one in case of a possible emergency situation. The program promotes communication and gives first responders quick access to critical information about the individual and their needs. This program will provide first responders with emergency contact information, detailed physical descriptions, known routines, communication preferences, favorite attractions or other important information on the individual. For more info or to sign-up, visit ndautismcenter.org/safetyjacket/.

Cakes and Coffee
(top left) Shannon Stetz, Erik Kiesz, Abby Tow, Kayla Cash, Bob Miller

“Cakes and Coffee” is a project that addresses the issues of loneliness and isolation within the senior community by hosting an event that connects seniors with members of the community. The event took place on March 24 at the Community Center in Arthur, ND, and featured food and activities to encourage connections. With over 70 people attending this free event, there was plenty of fun and conversations that took place as people reconnected with one another.

Second Hand
(top left) Shannon Lang, Courtney Getzloff, Coiya Tompkins, Staci Holzheimer, Jodi Stende (not pictured)

Second Hand is a program designed to raise post-secondary education funds for at-risk students in our community. The Second Hand event on August 15 (from 5 to 8 p.m. at Studio 6 in Fargo) is designed to leverage existing match dollars (currently at $2,600, thanks to several individual and small business donors) to raise money for education funds as well as increase awareness of the poverty issues facing more than 10,000 at-risk students in the area. To identify the best candidates for these funds and set students and families up for success, we are partnering with Fargo Public Schools’ social work team and Fargo Public Schools Development Foundation’s Seeds for Hope program to establish College SAVE 529 college saving seed accounts. Our goal is to raise inaugural dollars of $7,500 at the event and eventually develop recurrent funding for post-secondary education through partnerships with local school systems and other community leaders affiliated with at-risk students.