Rainelle (WVDN) – A Meadow River Valley woman is part of a cohort of individuals who have received a fellowship in community development.
Dara Vance is one of 12 people who is joining the West Virginia Community Development Hub’s Coaching for Transformation Fellowship Program.
Vance is the assistant director of the Valley Works Resource Center in Rainelle. Previously, she served two years as an AmeriCorps VISTA with the Meadow River Valley Association. Vance moved to West Virginia in 2020 and lives in the Meadow River Valley.
Starting Jan. 25, Vance will join 11 people from 11 communities throughout the Mountain State to participate in the fellowship. During the fellowship, cohorts will work together in various in-person and virtual sessions to learn about leadership development by utilizing their existing strengths and helping them better understand how they can show up and be more intentional leaders.
Cohorts will meet for five sessions over a nine-month period as they learn some of the tools and skills to take their leadership and community development work to the next level. Through the West Virginia Community Development Hub’s program, cohorts of the Coaching for Transformation fellowship get to tap into a network of like-minded West Virginians working to improve their communities.
“One of my favorite things about our fellowships is how they connect people from different communities helping to foster a network of people working together to help West Virginia,” says Stacy Thomas, the community coaching programs coordinator. “The Coaching for Transformation Fellowship program offers people tools that they can take back to their communities to help teams push forward projects to boost their economic diversification.”
Other participants are Brittany Blackham of Clarksburg, April Elkins Badtke of Beckley, V Konopka of Morgantown, Ricci LaRoue of Huntington, Ty Lucas of Huntington, Krista Jent of Matewan, Tracy McCoy of Summersville, Lora Michael of Mannington, Kalyn Obiozor-Dorey of Huntington, Bryan Smith of Grafton and Tina Westfall-Allen of Hinton.
