Community Possibilities
Community Possibilities
Building Resilient Communities: Darice Oppong's Journey of Trauma-Informed Leadership
Darice Oppong's joins me today to share her journey working in community leadership and trauma-informed practices. We explore the vital role of collaboration in fostering resilient communities and the importance of celebrating small victories as coalition members work together to address societal challenges.
• Darice’s background in community service and leadership
• The significance of trauma-informed care in supporting individuals
• Strategies for building and sustaining coalitions effectively
• The development of onboarding processes to enhance member engagement
• The challenge and necessity of community collaboration
• Insights into the future goals for Resilient Middle Georgia
If you found this conversation helpful and want to dive deeper into creating impact in your community, I invite you to visit my website at communityevaluationsolutions.com/resources. You're going to find free tools, guides, and templates to support your work to build stronger community organizations.
Darice's Bio
Darice Oppong is a passionate leader, speaker, advocate, and lifelong learner currently pursuing her Master’s in Organizational Leadership at Mercer University. With a heart for service and community, Darice wears many hats, including her role as Coalition Coordinator for Resilient Middle Georgia (RMG), where she empowers leaders to embed trauma-informed care practices into their organizations across the region.
Over the past five years, she has focused on creating meaningful impact, particularly in rural and underserved communities. In her role with Resilient Middle Georgia (RMG), Darice has contributed significantly to building the coalition’s capacity.
In January 2024, Darice’s entrepreneurial spirit shines through Judah David Creations, a crochet shop on Etsy inspired by her son’s legacy. Her motto, “Crochet is a metaphor for life. You just need to take it one stitch at a time, and eventually you’ll make something beautiful,” reflects her commitment to resilience and creativity.
When she’s not coordinating coalitions or crafting new designs, Darice serves as the Praise and Worship Leader for Kingdom Life Church. She treasures quality time with her husband, friends, and family, finding joy and purpose in building connections and inspiring others to embrace their journeys.
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How Ann can help:
· Support the evaluation capacity of your coalition or community-based organization.
· Help you create a strategic plan that doesn’t stress you and your group out, doesn’t take all year to design, and is actionable.
· Engage your group in equitable discussions about difficult conversations.
· Facilitate a workshop to plan for action and get your group moving.
· Create a workshop that energizes and excites your group for action.
· Speak at your conference or event.
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Music by Zach Price: Zachpricet@gmail.com
So, so, Hi everybody, welcome back to Community Possibilities. It is 2025, and I have a special episode just for my coalition and community collaborative leaders out there. So, if you are a community-based organization or nonprofit, this episode is just for you. Organization or nonprofit, this episode is just for you. My guest is Darice Oppong.
Ann Price:Darice and I met about a year and a half ago or so. She is a passionate leader, a speaker, an advocate and a lifelong learner. She just finished up her master's degree in organizational leadership and she has a heart for service and the community. She wears many hats, this young woman, including her role as Coalition Coordinator for Resilient Middle Georgia, where she empowers leaders to embed trauma-informed care practices into their organizations across Middle Georgia. Over the past five years, she's focused on creating meaningful impact, particularly in rural and underserved communities. Her leadership has been instrumental in launching initiatives like Live Well, twigs and revitalizing Agape Campus Ministry, where she and her husband serve as campus leaders. In Darice's role with Resilient Middle Georgia, she has contributed significantly to building the coalition's capacity. In this past year, she's developed an onboarding packet, a commitment letter, and facilitated many listening sessions across the region. To date, resilient Middle Georgia has 58 official coalition members signed on to embed trauma-informed work into their organizations. Alongside her community engagement work, Darice offers consulting services, helping organizations and small businesses reach their highest potential.
Ann Price:In January of 2024, darice's entrepreneurial spirit shines through through Judah David Creations, a crochet shop on Etsy inspired by her son's legacy, and we're going to talk about that today. As Darice says, crochet is a metaphor for life. You just need to take it one stitch at a time and eventually you'll make something beautiful. This really reflects her commitment to resilience and creativity, and I don't think it's a bad metaphor for coalitions either. When she's not coordinating coalitions or crafting new designs, dorese serves as the praise and worship leader for Kingdom Life Church. She treasures quality time with her husband, friends and family, finding joy and purpose in building connections and inspiring others to embrace their journeys. Thank you so much, dereese, for coming on the show and, before we dive right in, just a friendly reminder to please like and share this episode and, if you would be so kind, leave a review. That just helps us get in many more ears. Happy 2025, everyone, hi, everybody. Welcome to Community Possibilities. Hey, teresa Plung, how are you?
Darice Oppong:Hey Darice Oppong, how are you?
Ann Price:Hey there, I'm good. How are you? I am so good. We're recording this on a Friday in 2024, but this is not going to go live in 2025, because I want to start off 2025 of the podcast with you, my friend.
Darice Oppong:Wow. No, that's such an honor. Don't make me blush already. We haven't even started the conversation. I'm already feeling like I'm setting the bar, setting the bar so high. This has been an honor.
Ann Price:Well, friends yeah, yeah, thanks for coming on. So for those of you who are longtime listeners of Community Possibilities and maybe for those of you who are new to the show, community Possibilities is all about that what is possible in our communities when we really come together. And the reason why I wanted my friend Dereese and the reason why I wanted my friend Drees to come on the show is now I'm really going to make you blush. She's probably one of the best, best coalition leaders I have ever met in my 20 years of doing this Darice, no, no, seriously. I seriously mean that I've worked with a lot of coalition leaders, collaborative leaders, over my time and you are the transformational leader that every community needs.
Darice Oppong:Wow, I receive that I do. It's one of those things where people compliment you and you're like but I'm practicing saying thank you and receiving it, so thank you for that. I really do appreciate that.
Ann Price:Well, we met gosh. Is it two years ago now? I think two years ago.
Darice Oppong:I started, it's been almost yeah.
Ann Price:It's going. It's been like a year and a half yeah, maybe a year and a half, all right. It's been like a year and a half. Yeah, maybe a year and a half, all right. So I started working with Resilient Middle Georgia, a coalition here, based in Georgia in the Macon Bibb area. That would be the center, but you're surrounded by a lot of other counties and we started working together and we're going to talk about that on the show. But before we do that, I want you to introduce yourself and tell us how you came to be, and I always say, you know, don't tell us your resume, we didn't you know, I'm always really curious as to how people came to be who they are.
Darice Oppong:Yeah, the story, the story behind the person. You know, lately I've been into audio books and I'm loving like I'm really into memoirs right now, and I just love reading and listening to people's stories, like to what you're saying, how they came to me, who they are. So my name is Darice O'Pong. I am a Georgia-born native, grew up in Tomming, georgia. I am a wife, a sister, a daughter. I am a Christian, a believer in Jesus. I'm actively involved in my local church, deeply passionate about community work, and I never knew that this type of field existed.
Darice Oppong:My parents are from Ghana, west Africa, and so, growing up as an immigrant child, first generation, you know you're kind of given a list of careers that you can go to because it's the ones that are most visible. So doctor, lawyer, engineer are our three options. Pick one and the family's sleep proud. Anything outside of that, they're like what are we doing again? So I chose the doctor route and so I came to Mercer in 2015 as a pre-med student. At the time, I was a music minor. I grew up playing um classical music. If I'm a classical pianist, if you didn't know, that's a fact I hold on and stop right there.
Ann Price:Wait a minute, stop right there I had I had no clue, girl. I have a grand piano right over here that we got for our uh third time yeah because, darice, you know, god has a sense of humor and he blessed me with two music majors, so you have got to come see me and play this. Play Okay, anyway, sorry, yeah, oh, my gosh.
Darice Oppong:I would love to. I would love to oh my gosh, okay, sorry.
Ann Price:Totally interrupted you. I got excited about learning something new. No, no.
Darice Oppong:No, I love that. So, yeah, I mean, I grew up very honestly, like there's no other way to say it I grew up really privileged. I mean, like your parents came from Ghana and they came here, you know, hoping for a better life for their kids. And I'm one of five kids, I'm number two in the family and we really had great opportunities. I went to a great high school, went to a great college, met a great community, met my husband, got married and we never left Macon. We went to school here and we just decided to park our cars and never leave.
Darice Oppong:And I was on the pre-med track trying to go to med school. And in 2020, I applied to med school and I did not get in and it was a bit of a blow to my heart and my dreams At the time. I was working for the med school and everyone was saying like you're a shoo-in, you're going to get in, it's no problem. I think I was like four points away from the MCAT score that was required for entry and I was so devastated I didn't even want to try again. I was like I just can't. And the way that I honestly described that season of my life you know I'm one who prays and, you know, felt like I had clarity from God. And so when it didn't work out, I was like, wait what? And I literally felt like like if I could describe that season it was like my life was on a whiteboard and I had all my plans mapped out and I feel like I just took a dry erase marker and just erased everything. And now that sounds a bit cruel, but it was more of like I know you had a vision for what you thought your life was going to look like, but I promise I have something better in store, right.
Darice Oppong:So I left that role and at that job I was a project manager for the Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center. It was a grant funded, statewide initiative, really grassroots work, seeking to understand the information, really understand what our rural communities in Georgia are facing. Because a lot of times, you know, we always hear the saying that there's Atlanta and then there's, like, the rest of the state. And so Georgia Rural Health, also known as GRIC, was, you know, tasked with understanding what is the rest of the state doing. You know what are their actual issues? Because they're not on, you know, those giant TV things, or you know, like it's not something that is widely accessible. You have to kind of be in those communities to know what those communities are doing.
Darice Oppong:So that was my introduction into rural health and at that time I was covering middle Georgia, west Georgia and north Georgia Like I think it was like 37 counties at the time and I was driving around the world. That's a lot. It was the world. That's a lot. It was a lot. It was a lot.
Darice Oppong:There was a time I think I've forgotten now, but there was genuinely a time where I knew every town in Georgia, like any tiny town. It was like a fun fact. Someone told me I'm like, where are you from? Where are you from? And they would say, you probably don't know. And I'm like, try me, I've probably been there Every tiny town in Georgia. I knew exactly where it was. I knew exactly the people because it was part of our role. So I was driving around the world and in 2019, which is when Resilient Georgia funded Resilient Middle Georgia I was working at Georgia Rural Health Innovation Center and Middle Georgia was my region and so Andrea and Jill reached out to me and said, hey, we're starting this initiative for trauma and foster care practices and we need to connect with rural partners.
Darice Oppong:Can you connect us with some of the people that you're in contact with? And that is how I got introduced to Resilient Middle Georgia. And there's more to that story as well. I won't go into that just yet, but I think, in essence of how I got to where I am, there's no other way to say it other than just landed in my lap, like it really wasn't something that I was pursuing or you really knew was a career. It really landed in my lap and, to your point, I realized for me I'm very passionate about communities. I'll give one story and then I'll pivot to.
Darice Oppong:The next question is when I was in college, my sophomore year, we took a class where we would help students at the local elementary school and I tutored all through high school Like I was the big tutor.
Darice Oppong:I was a part of this big tutoring program when I was in high school, back and coming, and when I came to Macon I expected for this tutoring program that I did through school to be exactly like it was in high school.
Darice Oppong:And I was devastated because I went to the schools that were here in Macon and they didn't have the resources, they didn't have the books, the kids didn't have the hygiene product.
Darice Oppong:It was like night and day and that's when it dawned on me, in that moment.
Darice Oppong:I did grow up privileged.
Darice Oppong:I am an African-American woman and I do live in America and there are, yes, avenues that have been oppressed or don't have access, but in the grand scheme, compared to someone else's life, I did grow up privileged because I went to a good school, I had the resource and did all the things, and my parents are from Africa, so it just it was a really big pivot for me because it it showed me like I could have been born anywhere else at any other time, in any other circumstance, but, for whatever reason, I was born in the family that I was born into, in the city that I grew up in, with the resources I had.
Darice Oppong:For what? And that really struck me Like I I'm no different than these students that are sitting in this class, like I'm no different from anyone else who doesn't have what they need, but I've been given the opportunity to speak and be a voice. So how can I help those areas? And that's really where my passion for community, I think, was birthed in a lot of ways, and the Lord has just allowed me to keep going and keep growing and more opportunities come in my lap and I'm like, okay, I guess we'll take this ride.
Ann Price:Even though God erased your whiteboard. Even though God erased your whiteboard, isn't that? Yeah, and I can relate to that, doreen, because you know I started out I wanted to be a clinical psychologist. That's what I wanted to do. You know, I tried a couple of times to get in and that just wasn't, you know, wasn't happening. I did clinical work for a number of years and got so burnt out and then, like you, found like, oh, communities is my happy place, working in communities is my happy place. So sometimes you know we have all these great plans and you know there's a, there is the better plan.
Darice Oppong:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And sometimes you just have to lean into it Like it's one of those things. It's funny because I my husband and I lead a campus ministry here at Mercer now. So we have a lot of college students who come with their four year plan and they're like this is what I want to do and this is how I'm going to do it. I'm like, yeah, but what if it doesn't work out? And you know there's the disappointment piece piece, because it was just, it was devastating. You know I had the when the whiteboard was erasing. I was crying, you know, in the process. But now, looking back, I can see, okay, this is, this is the better plan.
Ann Price:Yeah, yeah, for sure, right, you are. You are where you are supposed to be at this moment, right. So yeah, I love that and I could totally relate to that and what a great experience to you know to drive all over For those of you who don't? Know, there are 159 counties in Georgia. Now we have listeners all over.
Speaker 1:We don't just talk to folks in Georgia.
Ann Price:But for those of you who don't know, we have a lot of counties. We have a lot of rural counties that can totally relate to what you're saying about. A lot of people feel like, well, you know, the counties around Atlanta get all the resources right. They probably feel that way around about Macon, I would think, and some of our other cities. But it can take an hour to drive across one county, let alone. You had 37 counties. So, yeah, yes, it's crazy. All right well, let's.
Darice Oppong:And fun fact, I think, georgia, yeah, go ahead. Oh, no, go ahead no, I'm dying when I was working for greg they said that income. I think the next state that has, like Georgia, the second most counties. The next one is Texas. Like Texas has more, like, I think, 200 and something, and then Georgia's number two. So that puts it into perspective Like we are much smaller than Texas but we just so happen to have as many counties, or if not more, than most of the states in the U S.
Ann Price:Yeah, yeah, I, I, I believe you and I you know, and and I'm so glad you talked about your experience, what you know, being in these schools and recognizing what you had versus what other students have, because I think a lot of people think that, well, we have a, we have public education. Right, everybody has equal access to education, and that is not true. If you spent any time in our schools, you would see that very clearly that there are students who do not have the basic necessities to succeed in their school. All right, let's pivot and let's talk about Resilient Middle Georgia and your work there. Let's start. Let's, let's start by that work. Tell us about resilient middle Georgia, what you all are focusing on. So it sounds like you kind of got recruited.
Darice Oppong:Yeah, yeah, I did so. Like I said, in 2019, resilient Mid-Georgia was founded amongst three other community coalitions it was Savannah, macon, augusta and Athens were the four at that year that got funded by Resilient Georgia and the whole mission is really to promote trauma-informed care practices and we can talk about what that means or what that looks like, and it's actually like. Now, nowadays it's become a bit of a buzzword, like I'm hearing it in like mainstream conversations too, people are talking about trauma-informed care, which makes me really happy because I think people are starting to understand more about what it is. But yeah, I was part of their initial startup, so I just helped initially just to connect them with the community partners that I knew in middle Georgia, specifically because that's what they were covering. And then that year I helped them do their annual report, because at that time, I was working for Greg and we had a statistician who she did all the numbers and I just made it pretty, made the report look pretty, and so that was 2019. 2020 was the pandemic.
Darice Oppong:2021, I transitioned from GRIC. I was no longer working there. I decided that, since I didn't get into med school, I was like maybe it's time for me to get some clinical experience, because I hadn't worked at the doctor's office, I hadn't really got an idea of anything. So I moved and I went to a federally qualified health system called CHCS and I had every intention to work on clinical stuff and get experience. And I did none of that.
Darice Oppong:I was their outreach specialist and I did all of their community events. The community just keeps following me. I did all of their community events. The community just keeps following me. I did all of their community events. I did their social media and I loved that. I absolutely loved that. And while I was working for CHCS, I hadn't done any work with Resilient Middle Georgia until maybe the end of the year, andrea and Jill reached out and they were like hey, I know it's been a couple of years, but can you help us with our report? And if I'm honest, I thought to myself I was like I feel like anybody could do this. Like in my mind, I think I assumed that the skills that I brought were common to everybody. Does that make sense? Like I thought everybody had the ability to do it, so trust me.
Ann Price:I read a lot of in my mind I was like, oh, this is not anything. No, that's not true.
Darice Oppong:Yeah, I read a lot and I realized that now, yeah, you do. Now I'm like, is that?
Ann Price:you do. You do have a particular talent for making things beautiful and meaningful, right?
Darice Oppong:Yeah, yeah, so that's simply how I came on, and so at that time I was more doing consultant work, right, and so they would hire me for specific projects. So I would get hired for maybe a month to work on the annual report and then maybe another month to work on their mid-year report, but it wasn't something that I was doing over like long term. I was really kind of popping in and popping out and part of the coalition, and then in 20, and I did that from 2021 until about 2023. And 2023, we had my husband and I had a bit of a tragedy, um, in our in our life. We were expecting our first child, um, a baby boy. His name was Judah David. I was pregnant.
Darice Oppong:I found out we were pregnant December 2022, um, and had a big life change, big life scare, some health issues. Baby was born premature at 24 weeks and then lived for five days and then passed away, and that was a real, just like blow. You know, it was just a blow to my heart and everything in between, and at that time, I had no longer. I had left community health care systems and was trying to figure out what did I want to do next with my career? What did I want to do?
Darice Oppong:And a couple of months later, andrea reached out and was like hey, I think, right before, right before she reached out, the last project that I was hired to do was to create a position of somebody who could be their coalition coordinator engagement person. There wasn't really a name for it, but essentially they wanted someone who could interface closely with the coalition, and they asked me to research that position, to write a description, all the things. So I submitted that in the annual report in 2022, judah was born, passed away and then around, maybe like August of 2023, andrea Redosh said hey, you remember that position that you researched and did all that work on. Yeah, we want you to work, we want you to be that person. So that's how I became the coalition coordinator and I've been here ever since and it's been great.
Ann Price:Yeah, and you know my heart goes to you, girl. I can't even, I just can't even imagine and I know that happened like right before you and I met. So I just want to take the time to recognize that that's a trauma that you went through and carry with you, and it hasn't been that long, no, it hasn't. So, thank you, thank you for sharing that and I have every confidence God's going to use that pain for a purpose. I know that's true.
Darice Oppong:And he already has.
Ann Price:Yeah, so when we're talking about a trauma-informed approach, you can relate Right.
Darice Oppong:Mm-hmm approach you can relate, Right you?
Darice Oppong:can definitely relate and that's part of the reason why I wanted to you know when. I think it was timely too, because we had just that experience and I was asked to lead a coalition that would help people understand what it meant to be trauma-informed. Coalition that would help people understand what it meant to be trauma-informed. And if I learned anything in this work is that especially resilient middle Georgia. If we're going to preach resilience, then we have to be ones who practice it too.
Darice Oppong:So I got a real close, hard look at myself and realized, oh, I don't take time for myself, that when I'm feeling overwhelmed, I just keep going right. And so it became more of a. It was a job, but it was really an internal assessment on the rhythms of my own life. And do I really, am I just giving this information or do I really believe? I think that's where the transformational leadership and people qualities really started to speak really loud to me, because I started seeing like this work can't just be something that rolls off my I have to really embody it. The only way to really do it well is to be trauma informed yourself.
Ann Price:So let's talk about trauma informed a little bit more. We've talked about trauma informed approaches on the show before and folks go back and look at our previous episodes because we have had similar conversations. But let's because you do such a great job in your community meetings that I have been to kind of introducing people kind of quickly and succinctly what a trauma-informed approach is. So do you want to share maybe for those people who are listening who don't know what we're talking about?
Darice Oppong:Yeah, yeah, let me give you a spiel, my trauma-informed care spiel, and I love to do the story. Like I said, I'm super into audiobooks right now and I had listened to Viola Davis's recent book Becoming. Was it Becoming? No, what was her book? Oh my gosh, I'm mixing two books.
Ann Price:I know what you're talking about because I think it came out what a year and a half ago or so. No, I'm talking about and I heard it was really good, but I have not Over a couple of months ago.
Darice Oppong:Anyways, oh so, so good. And she tells a story of her and her siblings grew up in extreme poverty out in Rhode Island where it got extremely cold in the winters. And she would, her and her sister would constantly wet the bed. They were at some point. They just had never learned how to stop, and so they would constantly wet the bed and they would go to school smelling like urine. And when they went to school they didn't have any money. They didn't have any resources, not enough to buy soap. The house that they lived in was infested with rats, I mean anything you could think of a terrible situation. This was that. And they went to school smelling like urine because they didn't have money to wash their clothes.
Darice Oppong:And the teacher would approach them the two girls and say how dare your mother allow you to show up to school like this? And I remember reading that and thinking to myself not once did the teacher ask is everything okay? Do you have soap at home? Is there something wrong with your laundry? It immediately assumes really, the language that is shifting is what's wrong with you? There is something inherently wrong with you that has caused you to show up the way that you are.
Darice Oppong:And trauma-informed care actually slows down, acknowledges that people are going through everything. Okay, people are going through the good, the bad, the ugly. You don't know what people woke up with and they had to endure just to show up to work or to school or whatever. And so the shift of the language is not what's wrong with you, but it's what happened to you. And underneath that question is compassion, is empathy, it's slowing down to recognize that my agenda is less important, because I want to meet you as a human being, and I think the essence of trauma-informed care is now taking the question what happened to you and embedding it into the way our systems operate, because in a lot of ways, systems operate, because in a lot of ways our systems, our healthcare, education, operate from.
Darice Oppong:We are the ones who make the decisions, and people should meet us where we are, versus let's meet people where they actually are, with the services that we know that they need right. So I worked for a healthcare clinic and we did a lot of great resources, but a lot of times we had to slow down and think I remember one. We had to slow down and think I remember when we went to an event and it was primarily Spanish speaking population. None of our paperwork, none of our intake forms was in Spanish. That's not trauma informed. No, because what you're doing is you're communicating, you're communicating, communicating, you're communicating. You have to learn my language to the services that you need, versus let me. Let me arrange my system, my organization, to meet you where you are right and help you get the resources that you need.
Ann Price:Yeah, and not only is it not trauma informed, it's not, it's not culturally sensitive, it's not appreciative, it's, you know, it's me, me centered versus the community centered approach. Yeah, yeah, and in the example you gave with Biola Davis, really, you know it's, it's being, it's checking ourselves, checking our assumptions, and I'm as guilty of that as anybody right, checking our assumptions, thinking about context, thinking about taking a supportive role, and I'm not saying the person coming in to save this poor child, but how can I? Walk alongside you. What can I do to support?
Darice Oppong:Yeah, and there, and, and the reality is, I think sometimes we do get it. There's a fine line between trauma-informed care and, like savior, complex. You know there's a really fine line between that and that it's not. You might not be able to change someone's circumstance right. They might not be able to do something a 360 or 180 turnaround in a moment but what you can do is show them compassion. What you can do is show them grace. What you can do is do what's in your wheelhouse, what's in your scope, to support them while they're there and encourage them that there's options to getting out right.
Darice Oppong:So I think sometimes we get, especially as community, and I think it's because we're passionate about the community and sometimes we're passionate about seeing our people succeed. I think that's where sometimes burnout can happen, because what happens when you have a client that you have been working with for months and months on end and they keep going back to the same old thing? They keep going back to the same old issues? Right, it's easy to feel, to feel burnt out or to feel like they're not getting it. But I always, I always challenge our coalition members think about your part to play right, because we can't control other people.
Darice Oppong:There's this beautiful diagram. I don't know if you've seen it. It's like this circle and it's like things that I things I can control are in the bubble and things I can't control are outside the bubble. Right, so just focus on what you can do, right, yeah, everything else.
Ann Price:Yeah, people's lives are very complex, right, it's very easy to sit outside and like, well, this person just needs to do X, y and Z and they'd be fine. Right, but they carry with them so much and they live within systems, within neighborhoods, within a country. Right, there are lots of reasons why people are stuck. So, to your point, you know, where can I, you, I, what am I called to do? And I always think about that. I'm called to be a seed planter. I'm not called to harvest, I'm called to plant seeds. I don't know if you can relate to that idea or not.
Darice Oppong:That's good.
Darice Oppong:Yeah, no, that's so good I definitely relate to that, because I think sometimes that's where we can also step. So I know this. This was something that I learned in my work throughout the years. You know, working in rural communities and doing community work is I want to do everything, like I want to give up all the things. And I realized and that's where coalition collaboration comes together because one entity can't do everything. Everybody is limited in their amount of resources. Everybody has only so much funding, only so much staff, only so much time to be able to address these massive issues, and it actually does us a disservice and it does the community a disservice when we try to be everything for everybody Right, and it does the community a disservice when we try to be everything for everybody Right Versus if we do our part. Be really, really skilled at what you can do.
Darice Oppong:And there was a time towards the end of my tenure at Community Healthcare Systems, especially with outreach events. I'm not a clinician and so my job was just to coordinate the event and then I would have to recruit the doctors, the nurses, whoever I needed to help me. We did a monthly, a mobile clinic at a local homeless shelter here in Macon, and I would always invite the health department and other just community partners, because, yes, we can provide the clinical piece, but there might be other resources that they also need to know, like education and housing, and the list goes on and on. But in that time is when I really started to begin to see there is a value in community and there's a value in collaboration that we sometimes miss when we try to be the savior of the world, Right.
Ann Price:Yep, you always start your trainings with an African proverb. Do you want to share that?
Darice Oppong:Yes, yes, I love this proverb. Let me get it so that I don't want to botch it. I want to say it right If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. I feel like that is the essence of community work, and it's something that my dad actually told me years and years and years ago, when I was a kid. He would always say it If you want to go far, got to go together. If you want to go fast, if you want it to be done quick, do it by yourself, but if you really want to make a lasting impact, you have to go with a group.
Ann Price:Yeah, and you know what I would make the argument that you know speaking of, if we're thinking about coalitions and collaboratives specifically, they can all work and do their part. They can be the whatever cog, part of the cog in the machine that they play. They can do that thing, but they're probably not connecting. If you think about, like you know, gears like connecting and turning like a machine, you know if they're not connected, the system will not change. They're just, they're just spinning their separate little. You know, I don't know the gear, but they're not connecting and they're not going to change their gear yeah.
Ann Price:Right, so they'll. They'll go fast, but they won't go anywhere to to your point.
Ann Price:So that makes me think about when, I when I met you all and you guys reached out to me, you had already kind of come to this understanding that, yeah, we want to do more, we want to go deeper, we want to work together and you consciously, this was my perspective. You tell me, if I'm wrong, that you made the decision that we're going to move from an organization that provides training to a real coalition that works together in order to go far. Is that how you see what happened?
Darice Oppong:Yeah, yeah, yeah, yes. So from what we had been doing because up until that point when I came on which I'd say it's really just been a year I started back this February so February of 2024 is when I officially came on we had already had maybe four or five years of work in the making. And so we've had we've, you know, brought together all these community partners. We have a long contact list, we send out emails, we do all these training, but we really weren't seeing like the full engagement of our community partners, and by engagement I mean whether it was our coalition meetings we would have, you know, new people every time or there wasn't a continuation of the conversations. You know, we'd show up one meeting and then maybe skip the next meeting, and so there was something missing, like there was something missing. How do we keep that momentum going? So people know, hey, this is a conversation that builds on itself. So that's kind of what I came into, which was how do we get people to see that they are actively involved in this work? It's not a passive work, right? And I think, thinking of my master's program, because I recently obtained a master's in organizational leadership there's this model of leadership called transactional leadership, which is very much you scratch my back, I scratch your back. Approach, right it is you do something for me, I do something for you. That is often how I think nonprofits and the works function to begin with. Or maybe they get stuck there, right, they get stuck in that hamster wheel of if you do this, I'll do that.
Darice Oppong:And really what we wanted was we wanted commitment, and so, thanks to you, actually from your feedback, anne recommended a wonderful book. I call it my coalition Bible Ignite by Frances Butterfoss. Coalition Bible Ignite by Francis Butterfoss Literally. If it wasn't for you, I don't know if I would have been able to do the things that we were able to do as a coalition this year, because one thing that Ignite really encourages is creating a culture. You're creating a sense of an identity, a belonging. You want people to feel like when they come to your community group. It's not just to sit and talk, but it adds value to their life, it adds emphasis to what they're doing outside of the coalition, and so, really, she really recommended creating an onboarding packet, really orienting people's mind on who are we, how did we get here, what are we doing and how do I fit in this giant tornado of words. Where do I land? And so that's really what we started with in February.
Darice Oppong:That was my first task was to create an onboarding packet that is ever evolving. It's ever changing and being more and more succinct, but also being very clear. I also want to be clear, because this onboarding packet is not an academic paper. It's not. I also have to really think about who is this packet going to? Because we know the jargon. We know again, this is trauma informed care. I know the language, I know the jargon, but if grandma down the street picks this up, she needs to be able to understand it too. Know the language, I know the jargon, but if grandma down the street picks this up, she needs to be able to understand it too, right? Or if the CEO of a hospital picks it up, he needs to be able to understand it too. So it had to be general general enough for people got understood what we're doing and who we are and how they fit in but still professional. You know that that was able to capture people's attention, and so that was the development of the onboarding packet.
Darice Oppong:And then, per Dr Butterfrost's recommendations, we also made a commitment letter, and the commitment letter basically detailed. This is what you're committing to as a result of being part of this work and so, for our initiative, they're committing to showing up to meetings. They're committing to sharing their information Tell us what's working in your community. They're committing to sharing back and reporting back to us. Here's what we've done. As a result of the information that we've learned, we've gone to the trainings. We're not just ingesting all this information and then sitting on it, but we're learning the information. We're taking it back to our respective communities. We're offering trainings to our partners. You see what I'm saying. So it becomes this ripple effect, this domino effect of work that actually what coalitions should be doing, because I think sometimes we do get caught up. I've been in a lot of community meetings that are very sit and talk.
Darice Oppong:We sit and we talk and we program things right. So we've programmed ourselves to death and that we haven't quite sat down and looked at the system at large and thought about what's my part to play in that.
Ann Price:Yeah, yeah, so true. And so you bring up Ignite and I don't think I've had a chance to tell you this, but I just posted on social. I'm going to open up another book club based on Ignite, starting January 15th. So five weeks, 12 to 1. There's no cost. You just need to be a coalition or a collaborative leader or a community person who really wants to do things differently. And, yeah, so it's free. Grab the book wherever you get your books and come, and the book is super short and easy to read. It's not written for an academic at all. So, yeah, shameless Pollock About Book Club starting January 15, 2025. So five weeks, 12 to 1 on Wednesdays, so one of the things.
Ann Price:And Fran is retired now and so she's off sailing with her husband all over the world having a great time. But what I love is that she talks about building the structure, but she also talks about like small wins, right. So we have to do both. We can't just build structure, because that's boring, it's, it's needed, but it's.
Ann Price:Most people, especially people in communities, want to do something and they want, they, they want to make a change. They don't, they don't want to, just like you know, they certainly don't want to be in a meet and talk meeting, but they certainly don't want to just build structure. So we got to build in small wins, and you were talking about, you know, coming together and creating the culture. So we did a couple of things with you all to create that culture. One of the first things we did is we had, like a focused conversation. I think that was the first thing that I did with you all. We did a focused conversation about what do we want this work to look like? Right, we did do a theory of change. I remember that we worked on a theory of change. That's a visioning process.
Ann Price:And then we did cross-regional meetings where we did an activity. I think we've renamed it. I think we now call it building a thriving community. I think when we did it with you all, we called it building an ideal community. But you know, I come with all the toys and we break people into groups and they have a beautiful conversation using their kindergarten art supplies about what a thriving community looks like. And from there we did those cross-regional meetings. We did another set of cross-regional meetings that was more about digging into. All right, if this is what we want our thriving community to look like where are the gaps and how can we come together on those gaps? Yeah, yeah, mm-hmm.
Ann Price:Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, yeah so how have you seen those kinds of activities help make that shift from an organization that trains to an organization that really sees themselves as a regional coalition?
Darice Oppong:Yeah, so I think it's just one people love activities, right. So any way that it's not a lecture base, right. When we're just talking at people, you know we've all been to school, we've all sat in a meeting for a long time and you kind of zone out at some point, right. But when you really allow people to put their hands to work and really ask them for their feedback because I think sometimes, though, yes, we are the ones who are leading the conversation, we really are the facilitators, they are the ones I think there's a sense of ownership that you have to give back to the people and say hey, you're the expert, I don't work in the juvenile justice system, I don't work in education. I'm actually not quite sure about what the challenges that you face, but you do. So when we're talking about a community, we're looking at all the different systems that make up the community. I think there's a way for us and I'm even learning this even in the coalition building is that I have to communicate. I need you. Coalition building is that I have to communicate. I need you, like the only way that we're able to be able to reach this community is I need your input. So I need you at the table and I say that every coalition meeting that we do, that, every meeting that we have, I always say, if you can't make it, say you've registered and you've been a part, said you're going to be there, but there's something that comes up, send a representative in place, like letting them know that a gap will be formed if your voice is not present, and I think that creates a sense of FOMO, fear of missing out, but then also it creates a sense of oh okay, like there's an ownership that's also there too. Like if I'm not here, then maybe education, which is an area that I'm really passionate about, might not be addressed, and we know that's needed. Our kids need that support. Or maybe I'm in healthcare, maybe I work for a local food shelter, whatever your sector is, we want all of that to be represented. So I think what makes it successful is we're giving the ownership back to those that are doing the work.
Darice Oppong:You know, I think, especially again, growing up as a first generation immigrant, I could tell you stories upon stories of my parents' experience in Ghana and how so many people came and told them this is what you need to do, this is what you, but nobody came and sat with them and asked them what do you think you need? And that's what I'm saying. It's a fine line. It's a very fine line between trauma-informed and a bit of a savior complex too, because a true facilitator will sit there and allow the people. You know my husband is a therapist and so he'll always tell me, like I, I, my job is not to tell people what to do, my job is to help guide you, to see it for yourself, like I'm just asking you questions that pull those things out of you and so, and so I think I think really, and I'm really grateful, we did this cross County meetings, because one not only did it, did it bring our community partners together, because I think it had been a while since we'd all come together. I think it oriented everybody into the who, what, where, when, how of the coalition Right, and it gave them a sense of oh, this is how I think I fit into the larger piece, oh, this is how I think I fit into the larger piece. So it was a really great. I think it was a really great activity, just for them to see overarching.
Darice Oppong:Okay, we know we have systems and we know we have, and I think sometimes community conversations can get stuck on barriers. We can get stuck, especially in the rural communities. We can get stuck on what we don't have, and there's a process that I learned called asset-based community development, abcd. I love that theory because it's not focusing on what you don't have, but it's leveraging what you do to make that change, and so I think that's what this process did. It helped us see here's what we have, here's what we're missing. How can we use what we have to fill in the gaps? Right?
Ann Price:What I love when I get to spend time with you guys face-to-face, is it feels very different now in the room. It feels very different. I see people connecting. I see people connecting each other to other people in the room.
Ann Price:The whole tone and tenor has changed, and I say that as someone who spent a lot of time working in coalitions and I've gone to a lot of what you use a different term, but it's basically the meet and talk meeting where everybody sits around and says, hi, I'm so-and-so from the public health department and you know we're doing free vaccines on Saturday. And hi, we're so-and-so church and we're have a food drive, you know, right on, you know whatever day it is. And hi, I'm, you know, xyz nonprofit. We have our big gala Friday night. We hope right, it's just providing information. It's not identifying those gaps, figuring out where are the places where we can meet and push the agenda forward. And when I think about what, where you all are shifting now, it's that, okay, we created this culture, we're starting to build our structure, we've got these connections that we didn't have before, and now we've identified the systems and where the gaps are in those systems and then setting those priorities.
Darice Oppong:Right right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Darice Oppong:And I think part of that yeah, go ahead, no, you got it. Yeah, go ahead, no, you got it. So I think part of that too is in our coalition building, just like what you said of we're just creating a space for community. The last coalition meeting that we had was our celebration and I loved one of our partners said I'm so glad I came to the last meeting because one of our community partners here I've been working with her like every week since then Like we do work like that. That is like music to my ears, like it makes my heart, because again it's back to my point of we you actually sometimes it's easy to look outside. You know we think this is greener on the other side, but really the grass is green where you water it Right, if you water it Right, if you see it take time.
Speaker 1:Oh, my God.
Darice Oppong:Right, like if you take time to slow down. Yeah, if you take time to slow down and water your roses, then you'll see what's available to you. But sometimes we get so caught up looking outside that we're that we're not realizing what's right in front of us, and so part of what we do at our meetings now is I do a bingo activity. It's like a coalition bingo. It's just the opportunity for people to get up out of their seat, and I intentionally at every meeting. People used to hate this, but now I think they're starting to recognize this as part of it. I intentionally put people at random tables for the purpose of interaction, because you already know people from your organization. You don't know somebody from another organization and you have no idea what they could offer you, that you could learn in that process, and so every time we meet together, that is a key element of networking.
Ann Price:I think networking is also a huge aspect of coalition work that goes beyond just hi, my name is so-so-and-so and here's my program for the week yeah absolutely, and you know, just to pull out a couple of those nuggets for coalition and collaborative leaders who are listening to this one Drees talked about a coalition bingo and actually, uh, teach that. When susan wolf and I teach about, uh, coalitions, that's one of the activities that we use as coalition bingo. Um and uh, oh gosh, what was the other day the idea that you shared and I've totally lost it?
Darice Oppong:um, I can't remember the random sitting?
Ann Price:oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly, random sitting assignments, because we Exactly Random sitting assignments because we always, you know, especially those of us who are introverts right, we just want to like flock with the people we know we don't really want to. But that's the whole point of a coalition is to connect and write, and don't forget those community members, right? Those community leaders, those neighborhood leaders. Make sure your coalition is just not the professionals in the room, right? So that's all so important.
Ann Price:So what do you all look forward to in 2025? I kind of alluded to what I hope for you. What are you all hoping for?
Darice Oppong:Yeah, I mean I'm really hopeful, for I think this year we've done a lot of the groundwork in creating that membership. You know I'm so proud to say that. You know we began this year quote unquote with zero official coalition members. You know we had community partners around the state that we were engaging with but committed members. You know we started from ground zero but since February till now we have about 55, 55 community partners who have signed this commitment form, who said they're here, who said they're ready, and that is a joy for me.
Darice Oppong:And I think next year our challenge and our also excitement is building our coalition membership more, so having more members, but then also retaining the ones that we currently have and just making it more and more valuable and accessible to them. I'm excited to also give them opportunities for leadership as well. And so again back to the ownership piece. You know it shouldn't I really want to be like a facilitator, so my job is to really help guide where they want to go as a coalition, because this is ultimately the community's work. It doesn't we're saying Resilient Middle Georgia that's the name of the coalition, but it doesn't necessarily belong to myself or my leaders here, the five of us. It belongs to the community, and so we want to really encompass who Middle Georgia is. That's in the room. So I'm excited to see where leadership opportunities come for the coalition and I don't know. I'm just excited to see this work continue to thrive and for more people to be trauma-informed and just more compassion, especially nowadays. I feel like we need it more than anything.
Ann Price:Yeah, and I love that so much because I've seen a lot of coalition leaders who, either because of their own personality or because of the culture of the coalition where they are, considered the staff who does the work, versus it's the coalition who does the work and the staff is there to, as you say, support and facilitate. So I want to ask you some rapid fire questions, if I can. What do you love most about being a community leader and what do you not like so much?
Darice Oppong:being a community leader. And what do you not like so much? What do I love? I think I'm a people person. If you can't tell, I'm very much an extrovert, so I love meeting people, I love seeing people connect. I love just the work of growing, like growing, and I'm actually someone who really loves being part of startups, like I realized in all of my career. I've always been part of a startup organization and so that's kind of my bread and butter is being part of the start. So what do I don't like? It's a lot of work, so don't be deceived. It looks good on the the outside but it takes a lot of work on the back end. But you know it's part of the job, so I don't mind it.
Ann Price:Well, it's definitely hard. This is coalition building is, is, is, uh, is not for the faint of heart, that is for sure. What do you wish people knew more about? Either being a coalition leader and are working in a public health or nonprofit space? What do you wish people knew more about?
Darice Oppong:I wish people knew. And this is going to be kind of hard. This is something I think I learned it's not always about you. If you're going to serve, if you're going to lead people. My master's program program, my very first day of my master's program, I'll never forget. My professor said where there are people, there will be problems. So expect, you know, expect the conflict and even, to your point, the analogy you gave about the gears. As you were talking about gears working together, as you're talking, immediately that, and with that comes friction right there will be friction.
Darice Oppong:Yes, that happens along the way, and so we have to also anticipate that. Because we're working with people and and and I think people are again, because we're moving from a transactional way of working together to a transformational people also have to lay down their own agendas for the sake. We a coalition. A coalition means that we're coming together for a common language, a common agenda, a common goal, meaning that my own agenda, that I might be so, might not get addressed at that moment. You know, submit to the rest of the team and work as a way, work as a part of a team. I think that's the biggest thing I'd probably give for nonprofit or coalition leaders is that you are growing a team of people, and people are complex, so give yourself grace and patience too in the process.
Ann Price:You know, that makes me think about how little training we all get in communicating from a trauma informed place, right? We don't get a lot of just just as people just in general growing up and maybe you had a family that taught you that I certainly did not have that. So how do we communicate when conflict happens? How do we come together and have those hard conversations, do the repair work when we do hurt each other's feelings or take things the wrong way? That would be kind of a powerful coalition activity.
Darice Oppong:I was about to say. I was like let me write that down for 2025, because I think that's part of trauma-informed care work it's recognizing that those things will happen. I'm going to write that down for 2025 because I think that's part of trauma-informed care work. Yeah, absolutely it's recognizing that those things will happen, I'm going to write that down.
Ann Price:Yeah, Conflict happens with people, among people and certainly within a group of people. So, yeah, I try to, when I'm doing coalition training, kind of normalize that expectation the conflict is going to happen and how do we respond to it? Right, Right, Okay. So I stole this from. I'm trying to remember what podcast, because I listen to a lot of podcasts. I think it's like Trails Worth Hiking. I think it's that podcast. I do love a good hike. Okay, Not too much elevation gain, but that's another story.
Speaker 1:All right.
Ann Price:Yeah, here's my question. You're standing in front of your favorite spot in Macon, georgia.
Darice Oppong:Where are you? I am addicted to crocheting so I am definitely at the local yarn store. There's a local yarn store here in Macon shameless plug, called Farmhouse Fibers, owned by my dear friend Cheryl. She's amazing. She has quality yarn you cannot get it at like Michaels. I'm spoiled, she has spoiled me. Now I don't want any of like the Michaels or Joanne, no offense to them, but I love. There's something about hand-dy, hand dyed, handmade yarn that just makes my heart explode so I'm at Farmhouse Fibers in Macon, georgia.
Ann Price:So, yeah, this was something that I was hoping would come up at some point in this conversation, because Dorese may have finally helped me solve the oh my gosh, my edges are always crooked on my blanket problem. Maybe I haven't much graduated past a double crochet, but Therese does beautiful work. So look at Judah David on Etsy, if I'm correct. Is that right?
Darice Oppong:Yeah, yeah, Judah David Creations. Yeah, Judah David creations. Yeah, so that is my, my passion project. It was birthed in response to, out of that season of trauma.
Darice Oppong:I learned how to crochet while I was grieving loss of our son Cause I I needed something to do and I Googled hobbies that you could do in the bed and crochet was one of the first that popped up, and I always love to say that you know your life might feel like a tangled ball of yarn, Cause that's how my life popped up, and I always love to say that you know your life might feel like a tangled ball of yarn, because that's how my life definitely felt and that's how usually our projects start. But if you just pull the thread and work one stitch at a time, you'll eventually make something beautiful. So that is my motto and my spiel of that, and it was funny because I crocheted for fun on the side and then I post pictures on Facebook and families and friends and everyone was like can you make me that, Can you make me this? And January 2024, Judah David Creations was born. So find me on all the socials. It's all the same, Judah David Creations.
Ann Price:All right, last rapid fire question One piece of advice you have for community leaders, maybe something we haven't already talked about.
Darice Oppong:This work is rewarding, so celebrate your victories. You should tell it. You might feel I know a lot of times we do for Resilient Middle Georgia, especially when the work is going. You know we're trying to get in, we're trying to accomplish, we're trying to meet deadlines, trying to do the reports. Slow down and see how far you've come Right. Acknowledge the work that you've done, acknowledge the wins that have happened and take time to celebrate them, because it was hard work but you did it.
Ann Price:Well, we yeah yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Ann Price:We. Well, I can only you know for us as a team and when I think about you all as staff and the coalition, and then then the folks on my team, we, really we we were very intentional about the work, about what we thought needed to happen. We were also intent on measurement, which we have not talked about at all, but really kind of capturing all of those changes so we could tell that story. So I'm super excited about 2025 for you guys, I am too. I think it's going to be great. So I have to ask you the question I ask all of my guests when you look to the future, what community possibilities do you see?
Darice Oppong:Oh, I mean, it's endless. And it's funny, that was my last discussion post for my master's program. It actually asked me something similar to that and I answered for the sake of Resilient Georgia. I just see a people that really, really cares about people. Does that make sense? Like I see leaders, and whether coalition leaders or public health leaders or whoever care about people, and I think at some point we kind of got lost and I think COVID really reoriented us, because COVID exposed the fact that we thought we could do life alone. But y'all, we were going crazy in the pandemic. You know everybody, you know we really started to slow down and realize we need our teachers, we need our doctors, we need our, we need, we need each other. And so I'm just looking forward to a future, a possibility where we recognize that we need each other and we cannot do this work alone. Right.
Ann Price:Yeah, yeah, I love that, dores. How can people get in touch with you?
Darice Oppong:You can find me on Resilient Middle Georgia's website. We've got just resilientmiddlegeorgiaorg. You can also email me. My first name, darice, spelled D-A-R-I-C-E. At resilientmiddlegeorgia, spelled all the way out org. For anything coalition related related, I'm more than happy to support and provide resources as much as I can and as a huge resource of mine, so I'll probably tell you what she always tells me. If you reach out to um and then if you're also looking for crochet, I I, like I said, I'm addicted to crochet. Um, I now teach classes. If you're looking for a new hobby, more than welcome to reach out. All of my information for crochet is judadavidcreations. You can find me judadavidcreations at gmailcom and also on LinkedIn. If you look at me on LinkedIn, just Darice O'Pong. Last name, o'pong, is spelled O-P-P-O-N-G. Thank you for having me, anne.
Ann Price:Yeah, thank you for coming on the show, Drees. I appreciate it. Hi, everybody, Thanks for tuning into today's episode. If you found this conversation helpful and want to dive deeper into creating impact in your community, I invite you to visit my website at communityevaluationsolutionscom slash resources. You're going to find free tools, guides and templates to support your work to build stronger community organizations. Let's connect and continue the journey. See you next time, everybody.
Speaker 1:Thank you.