The Glades communities are different than most urban communities that I've been a part of in Palm Beach County.

It's certainly a more rural community, but it's got very deep roots.

I meet families that are second, third, fourth generation in this community.

I think there's a lack of knowledge for most of Palm Beach County about everything that happens in the Glades.

This community is feeding America.

It's feeding Palm Beach County.

When you go into the grocery store, what you're buying, a lot of it is grown right here in the Glades area.

There's always challenges when you get to a rural community with a diverse residency and seasonal residency.

In some cases, because we're agricultural based, where residents will move to other harvesting locations at other times during the year.

Good morning, Leadership Glades.

I am here to welcome you all to the class of 2024 2025 Leadership Glades Program.

Leadership Glades is a program for the Belle Glade Chamber of Commerce.

Leadership Glades focuses not just on Belle Glade.

Our program is focused on the entirety of the community.

Leadership.

Glades originated in the 90s.

It had some of the most widely known names in this community.

Members get together and say, you know, there's a lot happening in Belle Glade that a lot of people don't know.

How can we help them get to know what's happening in the Glades?

The program has run since because it's so well received.

People that go through leadership glades find things out in the community that they've grown up in that they didn't know happened here.

I am from the Glades.

I was raised in Canal Point and then in Pahokee, and thought that because I was raised here, went to school here, that I knew everything about the Glades.

I was amazed to learn at all the inner workings of the different industries here in our community.

Had no idea how far reaching the judicial system was, even though my father was the judge out here for many years, had no idea that we had a full-service courthouse out in the Glades, had no idea how far reaching the education system was out here.

The members in the class will get to see a lot of the different types of businesses that are operating out here, see, really the connections and interconnections that these companies have.

Often with the agricultural businesses, we'll see how secondary education has been Developed in a way to support industry needs in this community.

The agricultural industry relies on the, you know, CDL programs for truckers that are a key component of agriculture that are held out here in the Glades area.

Since I've been with my career in the Glades, we have worked through Leadership Glades and some of the other organizations that graduates have been in to help reopen West Tech facilities to help bring jobs out for our community specifically.

A lot of great things have come out of the resources that we've built from the leaders that we've built in Leadership Glades.

The class members will see not just what's being grown.

They're going to see how it's handled after it's grown how it gets from farm to table.

If it's local or farm to shipping for some of the products that provide food sources for most of America.

They'll see some of the social safety net resources that are available, that it's amazing how many people that have lived here their whole lives don't know are available to them.

I work for Stein Sugar Farms.

I'm a fourth-generation farmer here in the agriculture area.

I think when I was in the class, I was 34 years old and thought I knew everything, knew all about the community.

It was a real eye opener.

You're in there seeing people in all, you know, facets of the workforce, and you get to know them.

And that's a contact.

I mean, with the sheriff department, with the hospital, with social services, and if you have problems, you can go to the people that are in the class and all.

They become your friends and, uh, really helps in life, you know, to know people in different places.

It opened a lot of doors for me, but I can't say enough for it.

I would recommend it.

It is supporting emerging leaders, giving them the information that they need with the resources that are out in our community.

Understanding what industries are here and by making the connections through networking and getting to know and build relationships with the people that are in their class.

And then the value of that is when they leave and go on.

They're able to be better advocates in our community for things that they need and to help bridge any gap there might be with connecting people to the resources that they serve that are available here in our community.

And if they're not here in our community.

How we can bridge the gap to the eastern communities as well.

I look around in the room as we have orientation every year, and it is amazing to me to see the fresh new faces.

Our community is growing, we're crossing borders with diversification, and it is refreshing to be able to see that there's a need and a want for people to be connected.

We think that we've built a program that's durable, replicable, sustainable, and we really want it to continue to grow and thrive over the coming years.

For people that aren't here full time, that maybe work out here, but live in town when they hear stories about what the perceptions of the Glades are, they can speak from a voice of confidence that they've been there and they've seen what's actually in the Glades, a very deep rooted, Did strong culture that has many generations of commitment to Feeding America and Feeding Palm Beach County.