THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 15, 1995 TAG: 9510170461
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 156 lines
Joseph A. Leafe, the former Norfolk mayor, recalls the days when a small group of community leaders and home-grown business executives could devise solutions to local problems.
``That was the history of most communities, including this one,'' Leafe said. ``If you were undertaking a project in the community, the first thing you did is you went to Virginia National Bank.''
Those days are gone in South Hampton Roads. Also gone are Virginia National Bank and many other locally controlled major companies.
Corporate mergers and shifting economic realities took their toll on old-line family businesses that were once relied upon for local leadership and major philanthropy.
So now where do you look when you need to get things done?
You look in places you haven't looked before, said Leafe, the president of a new regional organization called CIVIC, or the Civic Improvement Volunteer Institute Corp.
A major emphasis, Leafe said, will be on diversity - economic, racial, ethnic, employment and geographic, including all South Hampton Roads.
``It's a recognition that we've got to evolve into a broader leadership base to address community problems,'' Leafe said.
Ulysses Turner, a fellow board member of CIVIC and chairman of the Norfolk School Board, said he was excited about the potential.
``What happens many times in leadership is that quite a few of our citizens feel left out,'' Turner said. ``CIVIC's approach is not top down but bottom up. We're trying to be more inclusive.
``We won't be satisfied until we have an organization that represents the makeup of the citizenry of our city and the region.''
CIVIC hopes to launch its formal effort in January. Details are being worked out, but Leafe said they probably would involve teaching leadership and communication skills, problem-solving techniques and civil deliberation.
Before that, CIVIC will hold some public discussions and brainstorming sessions. The first will be 7 p.m. Monday at Old Dominion University.
Similar meetings will be held next month in Chesapeake and Virginia Beach as CIVIC tries to seek and develop leaders regionwide.
He said he hopes the turnouts reflect a wide array of interests, including neighborhood and grass-roots groups, religious institutions, businesses and schools.
CIVIC's diversity goal, Leafe said, also represents the way its organizers have changed their philosophy about the leadership-development issue in South Hampton Roads. ``If you break down the barriers, then you can figure out more opportunities to do things in different ways,'' he said.
Old family-run companies no longer dominate the business environment, but there also have been many other changes, locally, nationally and globally, Leafe noted.
``As you begin to look at what was really happening in our community,'' he said, ``it is obviously much, much broader than just a change in the business community.''
One of the greatest challenges is the reduction in government spending and services at all levels - federal, state and local. The trend, Leafe said, will continue in the foreseeable future.
``In many ways you'd like to have less government, but it also is going to bring some consequences,'' Leafe said. ``It's going to require a lot more of community and civic leagues and partnerships between individuals and businesses. You're going to find a need to do a lot more.''
Communities will also have to weigh more factors and be faced with harder choices about priorities, he said.
That will make community involvement more important. Also, he said, relationships among different groups of people will need to be strengthened.
``We really had to make sure a program was developed . . . that was broad enough to encompass the total community, all of the aspects of it, from our civic leagues and our inner cities to our business community,'' Leafe said. ``And we've got to figure out how to better relate to each other and to be able to build upon the strengths we have as a community.
``We all have to work together to try to figure out how we could best develop ourselves as a community in a very changing environment.''
Leafe said he hopes participants will apply their new skills and ideas to issues beyond the immediate needs of their neighborhoods and cities. For example, some may be tapped to serve on public, private or non-profit boards and commissions, he said.
``We want people who want to become actively engaged in their communities in the broader sense,'' he said.
The challenges go beyond business issues, he said. They include:
The tendency of citizens to depend too heavily on ``government'' and forget their roles and responsibilities in ``governance.''
Trends that cause families to withdraw from community activities, such as fear of crime and greater time demands at work.
The increasingly vicious tone of politics that tends to turn citizens away from public life.
The proliferation of home-computer use, possibly causing people to pay less attention to their neighborhoods while they spend more time communicating worldwide.
CIVIC has been in the works for more than a year. The effort included studying leadership-development programs in many other cities and consulting with some local organizations, such as the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce.
The preparation included some behind-the-scenes debates over turf in leadership-development efforts. For example, the Chamber operates ``Leadership Hampton Roads,'' a program aimed more at promising business executives than the general community.
Meanwhile, several cities are looking at a proposal to expand Hampton's Neighborhood College into a region-wide grass-roots leadership training program.
``We're not trying to supplant anything,'' Leafe said.
CIVIC also will discuss its plans at an Oct. 25 luncheon with many business and political leaders, including members of area city councils. ``We need to get a buy-in on a regional basis,'' Leafe said. ``The future of our community is that . . . we just need to think differently about it.''
CIVIC's board of directors consists of all Norfolk-based members. As it evolves, Leafe said, it will include citizens from all area cities.
Leafe said several local philanthropies have pledged support to keep CIVIC running for a few years until it can start a more general fund-raising campaign.
Leafe cautioned not to expect quick answers to community problems. CIVIC, he said, was being designed to foster leadership that can lay the groundwork for broadly based and long-lasting solutions.
``Nobody has a magic answer. You just have to have the community plugged in,'' Leafe said. ``We're looking for permanence, not your pay-for-view TV special.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photos
Joseph A. Leafe, former Norfolk mayor, left, and Ulysses Turner
chairman of the Norfolk School Board. ``It's a recognition that
we've got to evolve into a broader leadership base to address ...
problems,'' Leafe said.
Graphic
COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP GROUP
CIVIC, or Civic Improvement Volunteer Institute Corp., is a new
effort to develop and diversify the region's community leadership.
Classes will begin in January, most probably at Old Dominion
University. Sessions will be limited to 30 people. The fee has not
yet been determined.
CIVIC will begin trying to identify new and potential leaders
with a series of public forums and community brainstorming
sessions.
The forums will be:
Monday, 7 p.m., River Rooms of Webb Center at Old Dominion
University, Norfolk.
Nov. 6, 7 p.m., Chesapeake campus of Tidewater Community College,
Phase II Building, Conference Room, 428 Cedar Road, Chesapeake.
Nov. 16, 7 p.m., Room 313 of Virginia Beach joint graduate center
of Old Dominion and Norfolk State universities, Virginia Beach
Boulevard and Little Neck Road, Virginia Beach.
Board members of CIVIC are Joseph A. Leafe, former U.S. Rep. G.
William Whitehurst, Mary Louis Campbell of the Planning Council,
Ulysses Turner of the School Board, former Norfolk City Councilman
John H. Foster, Donald L. Williams of the Norfolk Planning
Commission, Hank Wolf of Norfolk Southern, Joshua P. Darden Jr., a
longtime business leader, and Frank Batten Jr. of Landmark
Communications.
For information about the meetings, call ODU 683-3116.
by CNB