As part of the Alabama Community of Excellence program, the city of Florala has partnered with Florala High School to develop a leadership development program.

“We are very excited to be apart of the ACE program,” Mayor Terry Holley said. “The program is three years long and each year has a phase associated with it. This phase was developed by the city council to make a leadership development program.”

The program’s goal is to educate youth about the city and its practices.

“We encourage our youth to foster positive change in our community,” Holley said. “We ask them to ask as city volunteers, go on community awareness field trips, participate in round-table discussions with the mayor, department heads and business owners, attend Carver Community Center meetings, city council meetings, and give feedback and suggestions.”

FHS junior J.D. Hudson said the meetings with the department heads are a good way to get involved with the community.

“There is one person a month who talks specifically about their business,” Hudson said. “Then we have a round table chat about what we can improve. Then we have a talk about how we can improve the city. It’s basically an encouragement to everybody in the city and a guidance for us and what we need to do to better our community.”

Holley said it is a great way to incorporate the students and get fresh ideas for the community.

“If we keep the students working together, then we can succeed,” Holley said. “We need to start with our youth, because I think that is something that we bypass sometimes with city government. One day I hope that one of these students is sitting in my seat.”