Morocco RPCV Brittany Heaton works in community development in Illinois
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Chamber enlists help from Fellows program By CHARLES STANLEY — Marseilles Bureau Chief
For Brittany Heaton, the road to Marseilles ran from Minnesota to Morocco to Macomb.
The former Peace Corps volunteer arrived in town Monday to start a full-time 11-month stint with the Illinois River Area Chamber of Commerce to help with community development efforts in Marseilles and Seneca.
Heaton’s services were arranged by Chamber Executive Director Patti Smith through the Peace Corps Fellow Program at Western Illinois University in Macomb.
Through the program, participating former Peace Crops volunteers earn a master’s degree with a specialization in community development. Since it was started in 1995, the program has served nearly 50 rural Illinois communities and has proved a good match for the former Peace Corps volunteers’ skills.
“In the Peace Corps experience you’re flung into a completely different world where you have to learn a new language and a new culture,” says Tom Anderson, the program manager. “But what you really learn is how to work with anybody and everybody to get a job done. So whether you are overseas or in rural Illinois those same abilities really go a long way in getting a community to work together and solve problems together. The advantage here, of course, is that you don'’ have the language and culture barriers to overcome.”
That's a good thing for Heaton, because among the wide range of efforts she will be involved in will be beautification and revitalization of downtown areas, infrastructure improvements, expansion of recreation opportunities and economic development.
“That’s fine with me and I’m excited about it because I like to keep myself busy,” said Heaton.
Heaton, who will turn 27 next month, grew up in Minneapolis, Minn., and graduated in 1999 from Northwestern University with a degree in civil engineering.
Caption: Brittany Heaton joined the Peace Corps and served a year in Morocco in North Africa as a health and sanitation educator.
She joined the Peace Corps and served a year in Morocco in North Africa as a health and sanitation educator. “I spent a lot of time with the local women and children, visiting and listening to their concerns regarding health and education,” she says.
While there she also met another volunteer, Jim Heaton, who she later married. After returning from Morocco, the Heatons moved to San Diego, where she worked as a civil engineering consultant to the Metropolitan Transit Development Board of San Diego, mostly doing computer design and drafting work.
“While I enjoyed my job I realized that I wanted to interact with more people and make connections with communities,” she says. “When my husband found the fellows program at Western I thought to myself, this is my opportunity.”
Her husband also is in the WIU program, working in Rock Falls as a project manager for the Rock Falls Community Development Corporation.
Her early impressions of Marseilles and Seneca have been positive.
“I’m very impressed,” she says. “Everybody has been so welcoming to me, and I think the area is very beautiful.”
As the chamber’s Community Development Coordinator a significant part of her efforts will focus will be in implementing the goals set forth last fall by the mapping committees of Marseilles and Seneca.
“If there are new ideas we are open to those too,” she says.
In about a month, she says, specific objectives for her will be identified by chamber and local government officials.
“I’m really here to work with the residents of the area and the officials at every level basically in the ways that seem to make the most sense and be the most helpful,” she says. “I really want to be kind of a spark plug and a facilitator, to really reach out and do some good work for these communities.”
Her office will be in the chamber’s caboose at 135 Washington Street in Marseilles, where she will be on duty from Monday through Wednesday, although she expects to be attending local evening meetings and weekend events.
She already has announced an open door policy.
“I want everyone to feel comfortable in coming and visiting with me and talking with me and sharing their ideas and visions for how this community can be a better place,” said says. “That’s what I'm here for.” Click on a link below for more stories on PCOL
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This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Morocco; Fellows Programs; Community Development
