How to lead Citizen Corps into the future
By James Ray
One of the great strategies to give a Citizen Corps program effective direction is to make sure you have clear mission, vision, goals and objectives (MVGOs), and that each are effectively communicated to your constituents. Without these critical directives in place, many programs lose supporters and direction, and in the long run become devalued.
It’s also vitally important for the program to know the needs and desires of its constituents in order to support them. This is exactly what the Citizen Corps State Leadership Summit sought to accomplish this year.
The State Citizen Corps Summit was held in May at the State Office Building.
On May 24-25, 2016, county, region, and state leaders from around Utah gathered for the first time in history to create and share local, regional and state-level MVGOs. This ultimately empowers the State Citizen Corps Council to give support where it is needed most while making effective financial and other planning decisions. It also empowers each regional representative to adequately represent their own local constituent needs to the Council.
The Citizen Corps State Leadership Summit proved effective and enjoyable. The final product is still being worked on, but we are excited to share the outcome with everyone in the weeks to come. We encourage all local programs to follow this example in their respective areas by creating their own MVGO, communicating it to their constituents and making sure their needs are being communicated with their regional representatives.
Feel free to contact me at jray@utah.gov, for tools and resources to do this in your area.
James Ray is the State Citizen Corps Coordinator in the Be Ready Utah program in the Division of Emergency Management.
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