Grassroots Conference Focuses on Leadership in Times of Change

Nearly 100 community leaders and Cooperative Extension professionals gathered at the CAES Extension & Research Farm Pavilion on Nov. 10 to discuss leadership strategies in a world challenged by a continuing pandemic, issues of equity, and growing concerns about climate change.

The event was the 2021 Grassroots Leadership Conference (GLC), an annual conference that brings together local government officials, nonprofit and business leaders, community volunteers and Extension staff to share ideas, find inspiration, and strategize on how to meet community needs and empower positive community change. The GLC is sponsored by Cooperative Extension at N.C. A&T in collaboration with the Extension at A&T Strategic Planning Council (SPC).

“The last time this conference was an in-person event was 2019, and that was a different reality from what we are facing now,” said Michelle Eley, Ph.D., Extension community and economic development specialist. “This year, everyone who attended has already been coping with change, and they were able to learn from each other about how to build strong communities and grassroots leaders at a time when we must be inclusive, caring, and adaptable.”

The conference theme was “Adapting to Rapidly Changing Times,” and participants chose between breakout sessions that focused on small businesses, equitable spaces, leadership development, and land utilization. In each track, attendees and expert speakers addressed ongoing challenges for communities and local agriculture and how to address those challenges in new and creative ways. For example, attendees of the equitable spaces track learned that less than 1% of North Carolina farmers are black—compared to 28% in 1910—and that only a quarter of them own the land they farm. That impacts access to fresh, healthy foods in communities of color, according to Wisdom Jszar, manager of Deep Roots CPS Farm in Charlotte.

“Diverse voices need to be in farming beyond food production,” said Jszar. “We need to be in politics and where decisions are made, and there needs to be enough of us in the conversation to make sure it’s equitable.”

Another discussion of equitable spaces focused on confederate monuments in public spaces and how they affect local communities. Chris Harrison, coordinator of the CAES Landscape Architecture Program—the only undergraduate landscape architecture program in the state and the largest at an Historically Black institution—asked the group to consider whether monuments are part of Southern heritage and heirlooms of the past, or symbols of oppression. When creating public spaces, he urged attendees to “design with, not for, a community.”

Rev. William Kearney, a Warren County pastor, a consultant on building partnerships, and member of the Extension State Advisory Council who serves as its liaison to the SPC, agreed that community leaders need to think about the purpose and impact of monuments and public spaces. Removing confederate monuments is “not rewriting history, but creating spaces that are attractive, healing, and speak to all,” he said.

Other breakout sessions addressed entrepreneurship and starting a small business, preparing youth for community leadership and service, and optimizing the use of agricultural land. Jermaine Davis, Ed.D., a professor of communication and organizational leadership in Minnesota, presented the afternoon capstone talk and said community leaders must imagine new ways of working and engaging to find success in a rapidly changing world.

“If you don’t embrace change, you will be changed by change,” Davis said.