Impact

Recently-formed non-profit, InfantNurture, is outgrowth of Madison Leadership Visit

For over 70 years, representatives of the Bluegrass business community have travelled to other benchmark cities during Commerce Lexington Inc.’s annual Leadership Visit. The main goal of these trips is to study the successes and challenges of the cities in the hopes of further enhancing the Bluegrass Region.

Over the years, the Leadership Visits have resulted in a variety of direct impacts on Lexington, such as the creation of Commerce Lexington’s minority business development division and its Access Loan Program, the Fayette Education Foundation, LFUCG’s Herbie and Rosie garbage and recycling programs, downtown pedways, Coldstream Research Park, Thursday Night Live, and more. However, even with these easily quantifiable impacts, it’s the secondary or relationship-building impacts among many of the participants that keep people signing up for these trips year after year.

One such outgrowth began with a small group discussion during the 2009 trip to Madison, Wisconsin, and ultimately led to the formation of a new non-profit called InfantNurture, Inc., a little more than a year after that trip. An initial idea of Robert Riggs (Riggs Sales Services) and the subsequent discussion about how to make Lexington better between he and trip participants Molly Sutherland (Sutherland & Associates) and Fayette County Public Schools Superintendent Stu Silberman created the momentum needed to get the idea off the ground.

The discussion centered around the belief that education needed to begin at home and it could be improved if parents of new babies were more engaged in their new child’s educational process from the start. After talking with Karen Hill, vice president of nursing services at Central Baptist Hospital, while in Madison, they were introduced to Kim Kjelland, a nurse at Central Baptist, upon returning to Lexington.

“It was a great meeting with Kim,” said Riggs. “We decided to develop an owner’s manual or handbook to help guide new parents through the educational process during the early years of their brand new baby.”

By August 2010, the group had successfully completed “My Baby Handbook”©. The goal of InfantNurture, Inc. is to provide the handbook free of charge with every birth certificate issued in the U.S. The organization has the support of Fayette County Public Schools (FCPS), the Fayette County Health Department, Central Baptist Hospital, and the Lexington Medical Society. Subsequently, FCPS has started a new program called “Delivery to Diploma” which includes the distribution of this handbook to families with new children.

“I would still be dreaming of how to do this handbook, if it hadn’t been for my association with Commerce Lexington and participation in the Leadership Visit to Madison,” added Riggs. “The opportunity to meet and work with so many great people and to connect with Molly, Karen, Stu, and Kim, as well as Janie Polk, ASHA, Whitney Stevenson at FCPS, Tim Savage at Talent Attach, and Jennifer Sumeracki of Sumo Design wouldn’t have been possible.”

Find out more about this organization at www.InfantNurture.org.

WHAT’S YOUR LEADERSHIP VISIT IMPACT?
We would love to hear about other initiatives or programs that have been developed by participants as a result of a past Leadership Visit trip. E-mail your impact stories to Mark Turner at Commerce Lexington Inc.

Other Key Impacts of Past Leadership Visits

MERGED GOVERNMENT:
Our system of merged government was a focus of discussion during two trips to Jacksonville, Florida (1971, 1978). Lexington’s city and county governments became merged in 1974 and was the first Urban-County Government in the state of Kentucky. Today, the cities of Evansville, Indiana, and yes, even Pittsburgh are looking to consolidate governments modeled after Lexington and Louisville.

FCPS FACILITIES TAX:
The facilities tax that resulted in some $290 million for Fayette County Public Schools gained momentum and support following the visit to Oklahoma City (2006). After seeing what OKC officials were able to accomplish with their local option sales tax, Lexington officials knew they would need to take a different approach to enhance our school system with Kentucky cities unable to intitute a local option sales tax. The increase in the property tax rate ultimately passed in 2007.

DOWNTOWN PEDWAY SYSTEM:
Lexington’s downtown pedway system is enjoyed by millions of people, especially during inclement weather. The group visiting Minneapolis in 1982 studied that city’s massive system of pedways.

THURSDAY NIGHT LIVE:
Lexington’s wildly popular Thursday Night Live events run by the Downtown Lexington Corp. in the summer months was an idea replicated from the trip to Greenville, South Carolina, in 1995. Events and festivals like Thursday Night Live add to our great quality of life and help to attract newcomers and visitors to the area.

FAYETTE EDUCATION FOUNDATION:
The Fayette Education Foundation was created following the visit to Raleigh, North Carolina (2002) as a private, non-profit corporation to work in partnership with Fayette County Public Schools to help close achievement gaps and to raise student achievement at all levels. The “It’s About Kids,” “Ride for Kids” and “Back to School” campaigns resulted in more than $300,000 in donations and pledges, and more than $190,000 in grants were distributed to schools by May 2007.

ACCESS LOAN PROGRAM:
Nearly $9 million in loans has been approved for the start or expansion of small, minority-owned, and women-owned business in the Greater Lexington area. This innovative program was created after the visit to Nashville, Tennessee (2000), and has now been replicated in several other surrounding counties with the assistance of Commerce Lexington Inc.

MINORITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT:
Local initiatives and support for minority- and women-owned businesses have improved mightily in Lexington starting with the visit to Greenville, South Carolina, in 1995, with the creation of Commerce Lexington’s Minority Business Development program, to the Access Loan Program after the Nashville trip (2000), to improvements in area procurement initiatives following the visit to Baltimore (2003). Known linkages of procurement efforts for minority businesses have resulted in approximately $8.7 million since November 2005 (as of mid-2010) from a variety of private businesses and construction companies, LFUCG, Blue Grass Airport, the University of Kentucky, and the state of Kentucky.

LFUCG HERBIE & ROSIE PROGRAM:
The garbage collection and recycling programs in Lexington that people know today - using the Herbies and Rosies - were developed following the visit to Scottsdale, Arizona (1981). As of mid-2010, the city of Lexington intended to increase its recycling capacity, and thus increase its revenue from $1.3 million to $2.6 million during the next budget cycle.

COMMITMENT TO TRAIL SYSTEM:
Upon seeing cities like Oklahoma City, Boulder, Austin, and Madison recently, participants have seen the impact that a quality bike/walking trail system can have on the health of a community and as a recruitment tool for new companies/employees. Lexington currently has 12 miles of shared use trails, with another 30 miles funded (as of 2010).

OTHER RESULTS OF NOTE:
New Century Lexington’s Community Livability Report, Coldstream Research Park, World Trade Center, the Hope Center, and the economic development entity Lexington United were all studied during or created after Leadership Visits.