If it hadn’t been for recently completing the NC Rural Center’s Homegrown Leaders program, Suquana Charley likely wouldn’t have set aside time to do what she did on a recent Friday — putting the final touches on an application to serve on her county planning board.
Professionally, for Charley, a community health worker for the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization in Henderson, the most impactful takeaway from Homegrown Leaders was learning about the deep connection between government, policy, systems, capital and infrastructure, she said. Filling out that planning board application was a step toward getting into those spaces to better understand how government and policymaking works.
“I left feeling like I’m just running around putting Band-aids on things, and this is where the suturing is happening,” said Charley, whose daily work includes connecting rural residents with food, healthcare, and other resources. “[Homegrown Leaders] made that really huge impactful connection for me. You need all those components to be effective.”
An avid student, Charley constantly seeks out new opportunities to learn and was eager to take part in Homegrown Leaders. The diverse range of backgrounds among her fellow classmates, including doctors and business and nonprofit leaders, enriched her experience. “Having that wide variety of participants really fed into what you were able to take away from it,” she said.
And while the program inspired her to take the concrete step of applying for the county planning board, It also impacted her personally. Through a Homegrown Leaders session on emotional intelligence, she discovered new tools for communication, boundary-setting, and self-awareness.
She wholeheartedly recommends Homegrown Leaders to other rural leaders, calling it “empowering.”
“Any opportunity to enhance my leadership skills, my speaking capacity, is always huge for me,” she said.