How Change-Makers Are Driving Community Solutions:
The Journey Behind Engage Montgomery
When a group of CORE 2025 class participants set out to design their community engagement project, they knew they wanted to do more than fulfill a program requirement— they wanted to create something lasting, meaningful, and real. The outcome was to create a session of Engage Montgomery, a newly created program that Leadership Montgomery is launching this spring.
From Cohort to Collective Impact
Engage Montgomery is not just an event — it is a comprehensive one-day leadership program designed to empower Montgomery County residents and professionals with the insights and skills to navigate the county’s systems and structures effectively. Each session in this series focuses on a critical area of local infrastructure, providing participants with the knowledge, resources, and connections needed to lead and engage.
At the beginning of each program year, members of the CORE class self-select their groups based on a common topic. Back in September, six CORE 2025 class participants–Rokas Beresniovas, Brian Fox, Clarissa Harris, Matt Logan, Kate Medina, and Duncan Mullis—— dedicated their project to environmental sustainability. The group wanted to “empower community leaders to take actionable steps that help their organization/community prepare for and adapt to climate change, regardless of their available resources.” Knowing that LM was developing a new one-day program hyper-focused on specific areas of the county, the decision was quickly made to collaborate and develop this session for LM.
A Collaborative Vision
From the beginning, the group approached the project as a co-creation process. No one voice dominated. Instead, participants leaned into the room’s different perspectives and experiences—something they credit as a key ingredient to the project’s success. This project aimed to work with the LM team to deliver a turn-key session to give its participants the framework needed for sustainability planning while highlighting exemplary projects and key resources here in Montgomery County.
“The Leadership Montgomery experience provided an opportunity for us to unite and make a meaningful impact on our community by creating a collaborative project. The Green Team, composed of leaders from various sectors, came together to design a project that would drive change,” said Duncan Mullis, Director of Recreation and Parks for the Montgomery Village Foundation and member of the Green Team.
What to Expect at Engage Montgomery
The event will feature connections, storytelling, and resource-sharing opportunities among residents, local organizations, and government leaders. Designed to be interactive and welcoming, Engage Montgomery is not your typical forum. It’s an invitation to listen, to speak, and to collaborate.
Whether you’re a seasoned community leader or just starting to explore how to get involved, there’s a place for you here.
A Leadership Program That Walks with Its Participants
This project is just one example of how CORE participants turn theory into practice through their community engagement projects. Some other areas the small groups are addressing this year are housing, community health and wellness, healthcare workforce, and youth financial literacy. All of the projects challenge participants to think critically about their role in creating systemic change and then supports them in acting on it.
Engage Montgomery proves that the result can be transformative when diverse voices come together with a shared purpose.
To register for the April 25th session, click here.