Lead for America, With Cadie Bergan
Episode Description
Lead for America’s mission is “to build a leadership force of moral, dynamic and locally rooted leaders committed to serving the communities they call home in every corner of this country.” Cadie Bergan, senior recruitment and selection manager, gives an overview of Lead for America, a nonprofit organization that connects volunteers in service opportunities across the country.
Transcript
Transcripts have been lightly edited for clarity and readability.
Intro: The following program is brought to you by the Tennessee Broadband Association. Lead Tennessee Radio, conversations with the leaders moving our state forward. We look at the issues shaping Tennessee’s future: rural development, public policy, broadband, health care, and other topics impacting our communities.
Carrie Huckeby: Hello! I’m Carrie Huckeby, executive director for the Tennessee Broadband Association. In 2018, an idea and then a nonprofit was born. The mission to ensure that rural communities stay connected and are not left behind in today’s fast changing technological and economic environment.
That nonprofit is Lead for America and their program, American Connection Corps (ACC) focuses on providing resources to communities in order to help them identify economic, health, social, agriculture, and natural resource opportunities. My guest on this episode of Lead Tennessee Radio is Cadie Bergan, and she’s the recruitment manager for ACC. Welcome, Cadie!
Cadie Bergan: Hi, Carrie! Thank you so much for having me today.
Carrie Huckeby: I’m happy you’re here. I had the pleasure, Cadie, of moderating a panel that you were a part of at the Smart Rural Community Conference in Fort Lauderdale. And it was my first introduction to Lead for America and ACC. And as I came home, you know, I got on your website, and I started following your work. I’m even more impressed with the mission. Tell my listeners about Lead for America and what attracted you to be a part of that organization?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, yeah, that’s such a great question. A little background. I come from a very small rural town in northwest Alabama and then went to college at Clemson. And after graduating college, I found myself back in a small rural town in South Carolina and had the opportunity to do a lot of community development and help support this new program that was being developed in the area.
And I just got really involved and interested in this idea of going back to your home, going back to your community, and being connected to the community. And so I came across Lead for America, actually, in my graduate studies, I was doing some research about this, like, connection to place, and this organization popped up, and they had an open position for a recruiter. And so I applied.
And as I was going through the interview process, I just realized how committed the organization was to communities across the nation and how committed it was to making sure that people are connected to the places they call home. And that really just stuck out to me. The motto is “Start Where You Live.” And I think the assumption sometimes is that young people specifically don’t want to go back to their homes. And this program denies that almost. They want to go back; they just need the opportunity. And so really excited about what we’re doing here.
Carrie Huckeby: Yes, I think it was excellent. Of course, I was raised in a rural town. I’ve lived in a rural town most of my life. I’d left for a little while, and then came back. So it’s exciting to know that there are organizations out there concentrating on those opportunities to keep young people in where they want to live. So for ACC, it is about the recruitment of finding people to go into these communities and work with leaders. Then it’s the training that you provide, and then it’s placement in the rural town. What do you look for when you’re recruiting someone to do that? Is it formal education? Is it experience? Is it rural roots? What do you look for?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, yeah, that’s another great question and something that makes our program very unique. So we are focused in these rural and emerging communities, so even some communities on the outskirts of more urban areas that just need a little bit more support. And what makes us unique is we don’t have a formal education qualification. That’s not a barrier to our program.
And what we’ve recognized is that people come in at all different levels and have all different backgrounds and experiences that are helpful and can support their communities. So we have high schoolers who are just graduating, wanting to take a gap year, but want to stay home and serve. We have retirees who have worked for 30 plus years and want to go back to their community and serve.
And then we do have your more traditional right out of college or right out of a two-year program, and they’re looking for a way to get back to their community or just to give back for a certain amount of time. And so when we’re looking for these candidates, what we’re really looking for is, one, the willingness to serve, and then kind of this gritty mentality. Right?
Because it is a service year, and it’s a challenging one, or it can be. These issues that our members are working on are issues that people have been working on for years in their communities. And so I say that to say it mirrors more of an actual job, a position versus an internship, but it is a service year. And so really being able to have that heart of service and being able to commit for the full year is really important. And of course, having that local piece is something that we really value in our program.
Carrie Huckeby: Sounds great! And it’s exciting that I may have as a retiree; I didn’t know you hired retirees too. So I may have my next career lined up. I may have to talk to you about.
Cadie Bergan: Yes, I would love to send you some resources.
Carrie Huckeby: I may have to talk to you about serving next. So you talked about the placement of these communities, putting someone in there, your recruit. How do you identify the communities that need assistance or want assistance? Can the leadership of the community request a person from you to work side by side for a year? You did say, I think it is like a job. So is it a paid position?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, yeah. And I’m careful to use that word job, but it is a position, it’s a service position, and there is a living allowance connected to it. It’s not a salary. It’s a living allowance through AmeriCorps. But as far as how we decide who gets to serve, where they get to serve, we have a separate host site recruitment team that works tirelessly to recruit organizations, most of which are nonprofit organizations all across the US working in these rural communities and emerging communities.
And so we recruit all throughout the year. We’re going to have over 70 organizations this year, almost 100 members that we’re really excited about. And it’s both, right? It’s us identifying a host or a community that needs capacity support, and sometimes they reach out to us, and they come across our organization, and then we make that connection. And once they are a confirmed host site, we start the recruiting and matching process.
Carrie Huckeby: What are some of the things that the recruit does? I know we talked about, they help with economic development. It could be a health or social issue, agriculture. What are some of the things that they do to help out with those?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, yeah, that’s a great question. So, as you mentioned, they are committing to a year of service, focusing on issues critical to economic opportunity, broadband access, agriculture, health and social capital, while being these vital anchors to their thriving communities. And their main requirement is to build capacity with these different institutions while bridging the digital divide. But a day to day looks different for every member. Some are more focused on research; some are more focused on outreach and community development. A lot of them are focused on digital skilling and work with the community and actually conduct classes. One of our Tennessee members did that this past year, held classes, I think it was twice a week for members in the community.
And so just depending on the area that they’re focused on and the need of the area, so it will look different. But as members are recruited and host sites are recruited, we do have a requirement to develop a position description. And so once that position description is confirmed, then we pass it along to our members and are able to talk through what their year would look like.
Carrie Huckeby: Got it. So is that living allowance paid by the community, or is it paid by ACC?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, it’s paid by the American Connection Corps program in partnership with AmeriCorps. So our funding comes through AmeriCorps.
Carrie Huckeby: All right, that makes sense. Well, not long ago, after you and I talked at the Smart Rural Community meeting, Tennessee ECD announced an opening for an ACC person. Did you find someone for that position, and what will they be doing during that year term?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, yeah, we’re really excited about that. Our Tennessee members and fellows have been phenomenal. We are still recruiting and interviewing, so can’t say that we have a confirmed member yet, but we have a lot in the pipeline. But if you know of anyone or if anyone would like to apply, there’s still time. We have our standard cohort, and then we also have a fall cohort as well. And we would love to get them in the application system and walk them through the process here.
Carrie Huckeby: Awesome. Well, we love our Tennessee ECD office, Taylor Beatty; we spent some time with her on Monday talking about digital skills training and the upcoming broadband funding and just had a good conversation with her. So I know that would be a great position for someone to have and what you would learn would be invaluable for sure.
Cadie Bergan: Yeah.
Carrie Huckeby: So how many ACC recruits do you have in Tennessee, in our state, and then across the nation? Did you say 7? No, you said 70 organizations. How many recruits?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah. So we’re going to be right at 100 this year. That is our goal number, and we’re going to have a couple of team leads that will put us at around 105. But all across the nation in very rural areas, emerging communities in a few and more urban areas. For Tennessee this year, we are going to have one to two placements right now. And then, of course, as we grow as a program, we will see these placements grow as well.
Carrie Huckeby: What’s the goal, Cadie? Do you have a certain number per state, or is it based on population and landmass, or what’s your thoughts on that?
Cadie Bergan: So it’s really all about need. Most hosts will only host one member per host site. Now we have a couple that are taking on two to three. So that is an opportunity, and it really just depends on the need of the community. That’s what we’re really focused on because as we talk about building capacity, we also have to make sure that there’s capacity at the host site to host a member, if that makes sense. And ACC supports throughout the year. They’re our ACC members, but the day to day is at the host site. So we want to make sure that relationship and that program is successful. So we don’t want to overload any host sites. But the goal is, you know, as we grow, as we get more comfortable with the program and we start to see success, then hosts will feel more comfortable taking on more members.
Carrie Huckeby: Makes sense. So how many did you say that you have in Tennessee, and where are they?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah.
Carrie Huckeby: Can you say?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah. So our main one right now is at the Tennessee Economic and Community Development Broadband organization. And then we do have an ACC team leader who was a former fellow from last year. She’s from Tennessee, and she’s serving with us as a team leader this year.
Carrie Huckeby: Great, great.
Cadie Bergan: She’ll be a part of the national team, but she calls Tennessee home.
Carrie Huckeby: Good to know. So do you have an outcome or a success story that you can share with placement, you know, from beginning to end?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah. Well, I have a lot, and I think I’ll kind of give you an overarching summary of our program. I have so many stories in my head that I could share, but a lot of times we get asked what are our members doing? What is the actual impact of our members? And just from this past year, we had over $45 million in funding, 88 grants pursued, over 6,000 households were connected to the affordable broadband via ACP enrollment, and we had 75 ACC fellows deployed through AmeriCorps programs all across the nation.
And I mentioned the diversity of our members and the different backgrounds they come from. And one of our members, he was a retiree from the UN, worked there for 30 years and went back to his small town in Minnesota and just shined throughout the year. Went in with his heart open for a year of service and really took our training to heart and took it back home and made a tremendous impact.
And that’s always a story that we love to tell, but the truth is our members are all doing incredible things all across the nation, and I always like to tell them, especially in the recruiting phase, that the intention is not for you to just be grabbing coffee or getting the mail. You’re in the community doing the hard work, boots on the ground, and you are investing just as much as anybody else. And so that’s something I always really like to share with our candidates going through the process.
Carrie Huckeby: Yeah, that has to make you feel good. At the end of the day, we get bogged down sometimes in the daily chores or daily duties, and then forget to look at the big picture of what we’re accomplishing. So I know that you love that, that’s happening.
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
Carrie Huckeby: So I noticed too that you have funding partners. What is it that you look for from a funding partner to be involved with ACC and Lead for America?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, and I don’t know if I can speak to that so much. Would be happy to connect you with leadership to answer that question. But I will say that the partners that we do have are very involved in the communities that we are serving. And so this is from Heartland Forward, Land O’Lakes, Microsoft, Benton Institute for Broadband and Society. They’re all very supportive of the mission and the communities we’re serving. So I would say that’s definitely a requirement. But yeah, if anyone’s interested in that piece, feel free to reach out to us on our website, or I’m happy to connect anyone with our leadership to have those discussions.
Carrie Huckeby: Yes, well, you had some big names, recognizable funding partners. So that always speaks well for the organization and everything that you do. So speaking of information, maybe a business does want to be a funding partner or someone wants to get involved or be a recruit or give a year of service. How do they find out more, Cadie?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, well, I’ll direct you to our website, which is americanconnectioncorps.org. All of our information is on the website. You can learn about the ACC experience, hear from our current and past members, and what we plan on doing in the future. You can also find the contact information for all of our staff members.
I’ll also add that we are all very active on LinkedIn as well, so please don’t hesitate if someone is out there listening and just wants to connect. Ask about the program, ask about a partnership, whatever it is, we’ll find you the right person, the right contact, and we’ll connect on there. But we like to stay active on LinkedIn as well.
Carrie Huckeby: Great. Good information, and I hope people will reach out. It’s certainly an interesting and worthwhile program. Is there anything else, Cadie, we need to know, or you want the audience to hear?
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, yeah, I think I’ll just end with this is that, you know, sometimes people have a hard time understanding the relationship between the host site and American Connection Corps. And I like to say that the host site is the day to day, and the ACC is the guiding hand in the background. So as an ACC member, you’re working daily with your host site, but you’re also matched with a program officer through the American Connection Corps throughout the year. And this person is a mentor, advisor, helps you with training, if there are any issues that come up throughout the year. And then we also invite you to three different trainings throughout the year. And then we also host graduation in Washington D.C. at the end of the year. So a lot of opportunity for professional training to be a part of this cohort and meet with your fellow members and to learn about what they’re doing all across the nation.
So I would just emphasize that it’s not that we just throw you out there and wave our hands. We’re very involved throughout the year, and our host site supervisors are some of the most incredible mentors I’ve had an opportunity to speak with. And this truly is a wonderful opportunity to serve your community and give back and make a difference.
Carrie Huckeby: Certainly sounds like it. Thank you, Cadie. I appreciate your time very much!
Cadie Bergan: Yeah, thank you so much, Carrie!
Carrie Huckeby: My guest has been Cadie Bergan, recruitment manager for ACC, Lead for America. You’ve been listening to Lead Tennessee Radio, produced by the Tennessee Broadband Association, cooperative and independent companies connecting our states rural communities and beyond with world class broadband.