SUMTER, S.C. — Sumter city leaders are offering training to all city employees with the goal of better serving their community.
"Turning Sumter inside out" is the motto for the two-day long Arbinger training that is being offered throughout the community. On Friday, different departments completed leadership training with the goal of better serving the community.
"You can’t serve someone with a glad heart if you don’t see them as an individual or as a person," Sumter Organizational Improvement Director Mark Partin said.
Partin is helping teach the training alongside Mike Evans with the police department.
"It’s almost like leadership training, but it encompasses your entire life," Evans explained.
Not only does it involve professional training, Partin explains, "but then also it’s about your personal life. Are you being outward with your family? Are you being outward with your friends? Or if you volunteer in different organizations, you can take this there as well."
The training includes workshops and exercises that provide practical advice and examples on switching from an inward perspective to an outward perspective. In other words, the goal is to teach attendees how to switch their focus from themselves and their own experiences to think about what other people might be going through.
"The better we get as employees, the better we’re able to serve the citizens of the community," attendee Michael Geddings shared. "It’s not just police, it’s not just fire, it's not just water and sewer, but it's all of us working together to make sure that the citizen is served and that we’re doing what’s right by city taxpayers."
Attendee Tammy Tolbert tells me that after the first day of training, she’s already rethinking her mindset.
"I feel like this class is, so far, is meant for me," Tolbert said. "For me to do some self evaluation."
So far, about 100 out of 600 city employees have received the training. More sessions are scheduled in the coming months, according to Support Services Director Lefford Fate.
"Not just city, but the county also is involved in this, the Chamber of Commerce, the Young Professionals are engaged," Fate detailed. "And so if we can spread this and turn the whole city inside out, then we’re just a better community. And when you have a better community, it’s gonna make it better for everyone."
"It is meant to have a ripple effect throughout the community as a whole," Partin added. "As the city of Sumter, we want to invest in our community, we want to invite others to be in our community and be a part of it, and the last part is we want to serve our community."
The class will be offered on a routine basis to gradually train more members of the community one-by-one.
"I’m really excited about what this training’s bring to the city," Fate said.