Since its launch in late 2019, Live HealthSmart Alabama (LHSA), the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s holistic initiative to improve health outcomes in Alabama, has emphasized collaboration and sustainability on the path to making good health simple.
From left to right: Kathy Boswell, Dr. Stephanie Yates, Valeta Neal, and Hafiz Chandiwala of Coca-Cola Bottling Co. UnitedThat’s why LHSA’s Community Leadership Academy (CLA)—made possible through the generous partnership of Coca-Cola Bottling Company United, Inc.—is focused on identifying, encouraging, and empowering neighborhood leaders who will build upon the initiative’s early successes in neighborhoods like Bush Hills, East Lake, Titusville, and Kingston.
Across 10 biweekly sessions on topics ranging from budgeting to conflict resolution, CLA participants develop the skills, connections, and confidence to continue advocating for their communities for years to come. As leadership development specialist Kathy Boswell described it, while LHSA develops communities across Birmingham, the Community Leadership Academy “develops the people who live in those communities.”
Strength-Based Leadership
While designing the CLA’s curriculum, Boswell and colleague Valeta Neal stressed practical, digestible lessons that graduates can apply to real-world concerns, beginning with a final project that serves as a capstone for the academy. But even as participants learn new skills and forge new connections, the CLA aims to remind them of strengths they already bring to the table.
“I believe that people know their weaknesses too well, and we—the world, companies, etc.—spend too much time reinforcing that weakness,” Boswell said. “I really believe if we can change people’s mindsets in how they see themselves, that’s where true community transformation can come from.”
In addition to conducting strength assessments, the CLA fosters that sense of self-confidence and ownership by making space for organic collaboration among participants. “Out of that comes innovation, out of that comes confidence, out of that comes belief, out of that comes engagement,” Boswell said. “That’s the power of organic learning. People can see themselves in it.”
The first cohort to graduate from the Community Leadership Academy.The result, for the CLA’s inaugural cohort, was a collective decision to unite for their final project instead of applying for neighborhood-specific microgrants. With the assistance of Dr. Stephanie Yates, Regions Institute for Financial Education Endowed Professor in the Collat School of Business, CLA participants developed an inclusive learning opportunity, open to Birmingham residents, that will address financial literacy for both children and adults. According to LHSA Operations Director Lemeshia Chambers, Ph.D., the financial literacy seminars will be conducted throughout neighboring communities over the next several months.
By including representatives from the City of Birmingham, Alabama Power, and other major entities in the community, the CLA worked to achieve another key objective: demystifying and improving access to large corporations and organizations that can seem distant or intimidating.
“If I see something too big for me, I tend to step back,” Boswell said. “But if I see something equitable and even with me, I tend to step forward. This is another way to provide equity to people, because we must dispel the lack of [self-worth] in order to approach the monolithic.”
Boswell, Chambers, and other LHSA staff and volunteers saw “a huge change in confidence and communication ability from the first week to the last” firsthand when CLA graduates presented their capstone project to Hafiz F. Chandiwala, executive vice president and chief administrative officer of Coca-Cola Bottling Company United.
“Coca-Cola UNITED is proud to support the inaugural cohort of the Community Leadership Academy, driven by a shared mission to educate, inspire and nurture neighborhood ambassadors,” Chandiwala said. “Through our commitment, we aim to foster a healthier, more vibrant future for all.”
“Knowledge breeds confidence.”
Talveta Collier credits the CLA with encouraging her to become more engaged in her East Lake community. Less involved in her local neighborhood organizing than others in her cohort—nearly half of pilot participants were officers in their respective neighborhood associations—Collier admits to feelings of imposter syndrome during the earliest sessions.
Over time, however, “I went from walking into a room of strangers every other Thursday, to walking into a room of friends, to walking into a room of future allies in goal accomplishment,” Collier said. “By the end of it, I absolutely knew that I had what it takes to be a leader, to effect change in my community.”
In contrast to some other local seminars she’s attended, “This class gives you actual, applicable knowledge,” said Collier, who continues to refer to her notes from each session. “Knowledge breeds confidence.”
That confidence extends beyond practical lessons on financial literacy, varied communication and leadership styles, and team building. Now that she’s more comfortable navigating the landscape of municipal government and more aware of the resources available to her community, Collier feels empowered to develop detailed, actionable plans for improving East Lake and Birmingham.
“It absolutely was a confidence-builder,” Collier said of the CLA. “Until you take a class like this that puts you in touch with that side of yourself and makes you believe that you’re able to do this, it’s kind of just lying dormant, and you’re sitting on the front porch, saying, ‘Someone needs to do something about this.’ You’re that somebody. That’s what the class gave us: the ability to say, ‘I’m that somebody, I can make this happen.’ It’s so important to embody the idea that you’re able to effect change and it’s not out of reach.”
Year Two
As the Community Leadership Academy looks forward to its second year, Chambers and Boswell are incorporating feedback from their pilot cohort to shape this fall’s curriculum. The course will be streamlined to highlight the lessons that have had the greatest impact on graduates so far, and members from the previous cohort will return as panelists to ensure a continuity of knowledge, experience, and collaboration.
To accommodate more participants—most members of last year’s cohort drove to UAB immediately after leaving work—the CLA will also begin offering virtual sessions.
Asked what she would tell someone weighing whether to enroll in the Community Leadership Academy, Talveta Collier offered a wholehearted endorsement.
“When it’s all said and done, even if you’re never with a neighborhood association, you will have a wealth of knowledge that you can apply to your life every day,” Collier said. “If you have a heart for the community—a heart for people—the Community Leadership Academy sets you up to exhibit that care, that love, that desire to help other people in a way that’s different from any other platform I’ve ever been exposed to.”
The Community Leadership Academy is currently seeking participants for its second class. To learn more about Live HealthSmart Alabama’s efforts across the state, visit its official website.
--Written Walt Lewellyn
