Our vision statement at the Center of Community Growth (CCG) is ми закладаємо зерно допомоги – Ви отримуєте урожай успіху which roughly translates to we plant the seed of help and you reap the harvest of success. The Leadership Development Program started out as a dream in the mind of my director and it has sprouted into something beautiful. Over the past year CCG has helped citizens form a well-rounded foundation of skill sets, instilling the confidence of a leader. I am proud of each of our participants and to say our team created a sustainable program.

We had five projects created throughout the summer. “Active Kovel’s” quest was probably the most interesting thing to happen in Kovel all summer. It was funny seeing old grandma and grandpas stare at these crazy youth running throughout the city on a scavenger hunt type quest. The city granted permission to “Art Kovel” for a beautiful Patriotic Mural in the center of the city right before Ukrainian Independence day. The youth development coalition “Great Idea” made an excursion for about 20 underprivileged children. “Clean Kovel” (or, as I like to call them “Clean Mafia”), led by a city council member, developed an in depth survey about trash on the streets of Kovel which had over 750 respondents and who presented their findings to the city council. The Youth organization, “Center of National-Patriotic Education, SICH,” developed a plan to not only register their organization as a NGO, but also how they plan to renovate a space currently rented by their director.

Chills ran down my spin when I watched our second group of participants present on their community projects. It is a wonderful to see people work together for a good reason. When people accomplish a shared vision they bind forever. It makes me happy to know that we have such outstanding people in the small city of Kovel.

*These are the thoughts of Richard J. Roman and are not those of the Peace Corps or its affiliates.