Writer: Staff Reports
Published June 22, 2022
Douglas County Sentinel
Since January, a group of 11 middle-level managers from the City of Douglasville have been working to complete the Management Development Program certification through the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
The Management Development Program is designed to help managers become better leaders and has produced measurable results for cities. This group of managers represented seven city departments who collaborated to complete the course that offers comprehensive management and leadership development tailored for local government.
As part of the curriculum, participants are required to complete a group project that impacts their community. This cohort decided to create a Poetry Walk to be installed at Mill Village Park.
"Collectively, we wanted to promote literacy, physical activity, and to highlight the imagination and talent we have right here in Douglasville/Douglas County," Assistant Conference Center & Tourism Director, Samantha Rosado said of the project. "We were thrilled to be able to partner with the school system to showcase our Young Georgia Authors."
To coordinate the project, they worked with the Douglas County School System to get poetry entries from students throughout the school district to showcase. They also gained sponsorship from local businesses to finance the creation of the signs that will display the students' poetry. Finally, the group installed the signs themselves on Friday, June 3 at Mill Village Park.
"This was truly a unique and rewarding project that we had the opportunity to work on," Recreation Program Manager, Shajra Thrasher said. "The turnaround time definitely posed a challenge, but we were able to turn it around and produce a high-quality outcome that will promote literacy for years to come and hopefully impact the lives of those young poets who we had the honor of highlighting."
To further make the Poetry Walk a community-oriented project, the cohort reached out to local businesses and organizations for sponsorships to fund it. They received generous commitments from Mercer University, the Cultural Arts Council, the Rotary Club of Douglas County, the Douglas County Chamber of Commerce and Pioneer Land Group. Additionally, there were donations made to the project in memory of RA Johnson, by Mike Mettler, and the cohort all financially contributed to the Poetry Walk as well.
An unveiling will be held on Tuesday, June 28 at Mill Village Park (8320 Grady St.) beginning at 9:30 a.m. A tour of the walk and the poets themselves will be on-hand to speak about their work. More information on the unveiling can be gathered by emailing Samantha Rosado at rosados@douglasvillega.gov.
