Lindsay Wehr (FL ’16), director of advancement communications, University of Louisville

The power of one. The power of many. Knowledge is power. Each of us has heard these impactful statements many times in our career, whether that be for a large corporation or small non-profit. My three-day experience at Focus Louisville in May brought new meaning to these common sentiments.

For those of you just exploring both Focus Louisville and the Leadership Louisville Center, Focus Louisville is designed to give 50+ residents a more complete view and understanding of Louisville, along with a better idea of how to put leadership into action. Attendees range from lifetime residents, transplants, and very new residents of our great city. The diverse group of attendees includes all ages, backgrounds and professional experience but all have in common their civic-minded passion.

Focus

The May 2016 Focus Louisville participants discovered the amazing work that happens each day at The Healing Place.

Our time at Focus Louisville was comprised of different focus areas, including: history, arts and culture, economic development, government, education, schools and community needs. As we dove into each of these topics, sessions included an educated speaker as a point of reference, some sort of experiential component, and then involvement and feedback from the group. As with most conferences, the fruitful discussions and learning was thanks to each member of the room offering a different question and perspective for each area. Getting to take a historical tour of Louisville and appreciate landmarks you walk by every day; touring neighborhoods I had previously only seen in the media; hearing from elected officials; and ending with local non-profits, provided the perfect balance and escalation of the program each day.

Action

We all have attended seminars where we feel on top of the world, bursting with ideas at the end, only to have the real world take over upon our return. However, this experience happens in our own back yard, this is our real world, and we can impact it by the things we learned. Since attending Focus Louisville, I have set up a donation area in my office for WaterStep, a local non-profit we visited, re-visited the Healing Place to talk to staff and drop off donations, and also stayed in contact with fellow attendees. The power of one is strong, and each attendee was confident in their ideas and abilities. The fact that the Leadership Louisville Center brings together these like-minded individuals and harnesses that energy, makes me hopeful of what the power of many will be with this incredible group.

Learn more about Focus Louisville | Register for Fall sessions