Since its inception, the Plantory has built its mission around bringing more community voices to the table to lead and support locally driven businesses and nonprofit initiatives. With its transition last summer to a new co-director leadership model, the growing Lexington agency is looking to leverage even more of that collaborative energy within its own executive team.
When former executive director Angela Balcor resigned in June, the board opted to eliminate the position and split its leadership responsibilities into two roles. Shannon Baker, formerly the Plantory’s assistant director, was promoted to the role of chief operating officer, and local social activist Russell Allen was brought on board as the organization’s new chief development officer in August.
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From left, the Plantory chief operating officer Shannon Baker, board chair Teddi Hibberd and chief development officer Russell Allen. Allen and Baker split the roles of executive director for the non-profit.
The structure made sense, Plantory board chair Teddi Hibberd said, because the new positions align well with the former executive director’s dual responsibilities of operational business management and community relationship building. But while Allen rides point on much of the nonprofit’s outreach and community connection efforts and Baker takes the lead in managing most of the business functions, their combined input on all matters guides the nonprofit’s true course. Both leaders are mutually vested and involved in all Plantory initiatives. “It is very much a back-and-forth, constant collaboration,” Baker said. “It touches every program that we have.”
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Allen previously gained experience in team leadership as a co-founder of the Take Back Cheapside movement, which successfully lobbied for the removal of the controversial Confederate monuments from downtown Lexington. He said the partnership model strengthens and supports the Plantory’s efforts in creating opportunities to engage more community members. “You know there’s someone there to support you in those decisions, and there’s someone to bounce ideas off of,” Allen said of the Plantory’s co-directing arrangement. “It’s just good to have two sets of eyes and two brains on most of the things we do.”
And there’s plenty of work to keep them both busy, Baker and Allen said. Since the Plantory moved to its current 15,000-square-foot location above West Sixth Brewery at the Bread Box in 2014, its co-working center has grown to include more than 80 members. The organization has also expanded its involvement with the federal government’s Americorp VISTA program into a city-wide coordinated effort aimed at building capacity for local nonprofits that address poverty-related issues. In the past four years, the Plantory has more than doubled the number of local VISTA host sites, from 14 to 30.
In 2017, the Plantory also undertook a relaunch of the Get On Board program, which was originally established by the United Way to increase inclusivity and diversity on local boards by educating community members on the opportunities and requirements of board service. In the two years since the Plantory revived the initiative, it has prepared 69 participants for local board service, and graduates have accepted positions with an array of local nonprofits, including Girls on the Run, GleanKY, Seedleaf and Lexington Fairness, to name a few.
In partnership with its neighboring agency, FoodChain, the Plantory has launched a new workforce development program, funded through a city grant, to train unemployed and underemployed workers for jobs in the local food sector. The organization has also expanded its annual Lauren K. Weinberg Humanitarian Awards, which honor individuals and organizations that promote social justice in the local community, with the addition of a new social entrepreneur award category earlier this year.
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The Plantory’s shared workspace serves as the office for GleanKY, a nonprofit that addresses food waste and hunger issues. Pictured here are GleanKY directors Bekah Worster and Stephanie Wooten.
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The Plantory supports a variety of events and community initiatives from its offices at 501 W. 6th Street.
Hibberd, a design staff member at Omni Architects and a graduate herself of the Get On Board program, took the helm as the Plantory’s board chair last year. She said she hopes the co-director system will help the Plantory to expand its membership and increase participation in Get On Board, and also improve the group’s grassroots communication and outreach throughout the community. The organization’s work has already been leveraged throughout the community through the many individuals who have cycled through its programs and moved on to improve and enhance initiatives across the region. “Having these two together is just furthering that reach and allowing us to improve and turn more attention to everything that we do as an organization,” she said.
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The Plantory has expanded its involvement with the Americorp VISTA program in recent years, with a special focus on local nonprofits that address poverty-related issues. Pictured here from left to right are VISTA members Raaziq El-Amin, Jaria Gordon and Cubaka Mutayongwa.
Baker added that she’d like to see even more of Lexington’s micro-nonprofits connecting with the Plantory to get the support they need. “How can we get to the people who are out in our community and already doing the work, and how do we support them?” Baker said. “It’s not about us, it’s about them.”
And along with enabling more of those nonprofit initiatives, Allen also hopes more of the city’s marginalized populations will ultimately have the chance to contribute and make their voices heard.
“That’s one of my main reasons for being here,” Allen said. “My hope is to make sure that folks that are out there right now with a story to tell, or with a mission or goal, can actually have the space opened up for them, so they can continue to move Lexington in a positive direction.”