According to our new Boulder County TRENDS report, 47 percent of last year’s participants in The Community Foundation’s Leadership Fellows Program have joined a community board or commission, and an additional 20 percent have applied for one.
“The leadership program has really opened my eyes to the fact that everyone has something to contribute,” says Brian Coppom, a participant in the current class of Leadership Fellows. “I’ve learned that, in a way, being a leader just means stepping up and doing what needs to be done.”
Previously, though, Coppom felt like participation at a civic level was “some kind of mystical thing.”
“I assumed that people on boards were invited to be there, and that they’d all earned their ‘badges,’” explains Coppom, Executive Director, Boulder County Farmers Markets, voted the Best Farmers Market in the U.S. by USA Today. “It didn’t occur to me that this was a level of participation I could engage in.”
Prior to his involvement in the Leadership Fellows program, Coppom had never served on a board. “That’s changed,” he says. “Now, given my interests and my work, I’m a member of the Boulder County Food & Agriculture Policy Council and the City of Longmont Board of Environmental Affairs, among other similar engagements…all related to local agriculture. I guess you could say I’m making up for lost time.”
Indeed, Coppom also serves on the Boulder Chamber’s Community Partnership Council. “We focus on ways that for-profits and nonprofits can achieve more of a partnership, and less of a transactional relationship,” he says. “For example, identifying how you can tie your brand to the organizations you support.
“All of these efforts I’m engaged in now enhance what we do as a nonprofit, and help us build on the trust we’ve established in the community over the past 28 years. Serving in these outside capacities deepens my understanding of the communities we serve, and allows me to be a better Executive Director.”
According to Coppom, the mission of the Boulder County Farmers Markets is to support local agriculture, and make connections between consumers and producers – farmers, ranchers, etc. “A particular goal of mine, aside from managing the organization, is to better understand how we can expand our sphere of influence, and support our farmers on resource and policy levels,” Coppom continues.
“The Leadership Fellows program provides a platform for making seemingly unlikely connections, and learning how much we all have in common. The program has given me the encouragement I needed to become more engaged in the civic arena…and to pay a role in achieving collective, rather than singular, results.”
Boulder County Farmers Markets is a Millennium Trust grant recipient for a collaborative project with the Longmont YMCA to provide fresh foods to lower-income residents.
