Cindy Shepherd

Cindy Shepherd

KFTC’s New Power Leader Program is continuing to grow, with members across the state engaging clusters of their friends and families with conversations about KFTC and building toward our shared vision for Kentucky.   

Cindy Shepherd is a member in Clay County who’s been a New Power Leader since February.  Here, she shares a bit about herself, and a bit about being a New Power Leader.  

My husband and I have an organic farm and we raise chickens and bees and milk goats and sheep and garden. We have a five-year-old son who’s in love with our place, our farm.  He plays in the creeks and plays in the mountains, and he plans on being a farmer.  I want to better our community so that it’s healthy and strong.  I’m doing this for my boy, so that he can stay here. 

Now is the time for me to make a positive change and be a positive voice in my community. I’d been learning about the Renew East Kentucky work, and I saw that as something I could work on that would be a really positive step for my community, and for other communities like mine.  There are a couple of strip mines four or five miles from my house. When those because active, about nine miles of the state highway got devastated, and people in my community became angry.  We’re all just looking for answers, and I became a New Power Leader to bring people together around good solutions.

I put together a cluster of five people I already knew, and who were some of those people looking for answers. Some of them are long time friends, and some of them are acquaintances I’m getting to know better.  One is a good friend of mine who was one of the original KFTC members thirty years ago, and is interested in joining again. 

I introduced the New Power Leader Program to them, told them what we’re doing.  In the New Power Leader Handbook there’s a suggestion about how to have that first conversation, along with a template that people can work from. I took out some parts and added others, and put it in my own words.  I kept it short and sweet and asked, “Would it be okay to include you in my cluster?” Then conversations just happened. I was so nervous before I did it.  But it was so refreshing to call people and have a nice, relaxed conversation.  I could be myself. I told them I’d keep in touch, and I’m going to be getting in touch with them soon to talk with them about what I’m learning about the Clean Water Protection Act and the Rural Star Bill.  From there, we’ll see. I feel like all of them can be powerful in this movement.  And from them, we can connect with others in the community who want to make change. 

Five years from now, when I’m one of 1000 New Power Leaders who are each inviting clusters of five or ten people into KFTC… I think that’s going to put more power in the hands of the people.  Let’s get the power to the people so we can have a better community with a future.  The New Power Leader Program helps me have regular, normal conversations with people that let them know that we do have power, and we do have a say.  And it grows the numbers of people who will act on that.  There’s power in numbers; we all feel much braver when there are people standing with us.