Perth Amboy’s Emerging Leaders’ Upcoming City Beautification Project
As an Emerging Leader alumni and mentor myself, I’m so honored to be able to witness the behind-the-scenes and blueprints of the future work of Perth Amboy’s new Emerging Leaders cohort. Earlier this year, the new group of Emerging Leaders were finally able to decide on their upcoming summer plan, as they all came to the consensus of pursuing a beautification project in our community.
After discussing other ideas, the Emerging Leaders reached this conclusion once they realized the various ways they could approach this issue to help improve the health of others in our community. Some of the ideas that were brought up during this meeting included turning plastic bags into “plarn” that could then be woven into bags or floor mats.
Video: Billings Group Turns Plastic Bags into Sleeping Mats for the Homeless
By collecting the garbage and recyclable items around the city during the summer, the Emerging Leaders will be able to help the environment and encourage neighbors to think outside of the box when recycling.
Based on our past experience as Emerging Leaders and now as mentors, my friend Janelle Sonsiadek and I guided the new cohort with advice on how they could begin their work by finding out which areas they should target around Perth Amboy. Before taking any action, Janelle and I led the Emerging Leaders alongside their coaches, Cecilia and Tobi, in considering what questions they would like to ask their fellow Perth Amboy residents. As the team came up with questions, Janelle and I shared tips from the surveys we conducted last year, and we advised them how to develop clear and concise surveys to get accurate results. We also expressed how important it is to make sure they are targeting different types of individuals to collect a good representation of data. Although it was a tedious process, the Emerging Leaders were able to come up with a well thought-out survey, which they will distribute before starting their action plan!
Follow the Emerging Leaders on Instagram and track all of the Next Generation Community Leaders teams through the hashtag #NJLeaders2030.