Sigma IIs step up

A few sessions into their Core Program experience, members of the 2022 Sigma II class began feeling a bit frustrated.

On Education Day, they heard from students who didn’t feel prepared for college after the pandemic, and on Basic Needs Day, they learned about local housing challenges.

They wanted to do more than listen and learn; they wanted to take action. They aspired to make an impact beyond the team projects they were working on, and they wanted their community involvement to last long past graduation.

A few session days into their program year, James Rajotte, Director of Strategy and Innovation for the state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services, issued a call to his classmates, and Sigma II Steps Up was born.

Since then, the class has taken on more than a dozen monthly service projects, many of them supporting organizations run by their classmates or session day speakers. About three-quarters of the class has participated in at least one initiative, and the group has no plans to stop.

“Onward and Upward was our class theme,” Rajotte says. “The spirit of what we did was to lift each other up and lift the community up together. We lived, lived, lived the theme of our class.”

For the first Sigma II Steps Up project, about 30 members of the class helped furnish the new Open Doors Women’s Shelter with furniture, appliances and artwork. Since then, they have collected Halloween costumes for Foster Forward and grocery store gift cards for Rhode Island’s indigenous population. They attended the citizenship ceremony for one classmate, Billy Leiva, and organized a meal train for another, Jada Taglione-Dietsch, a first-time mother whose husband was deployed. And they supported organizations such as Lucy’s Hearth, Special Olympics, and A Wish Come True.

“I think we established informally – because they were never formal – class core values,” Rajotte says. “Inclusion and impact were the two driving forces no matter what. Anyone’s contribution was a valued contribution, and anyone’s ability to show up was valued.”

Sigma II Steps Up wasn’t the only initiative started by this standout class. They formed several affinity groups, two of which — women and Black Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) — continue to meet regularly. And they have built a strong support network for each other, as evidenced by the Leadership Rhode Island Shout Outs, individual videos about the 74 Sigma IIs that Class Speaker Deb Honor shared to her wide network on LinkedIn.

The Sigma IIs are not only generous with their time, they are generous with their money. They raised more than $22,000 for LRI, a gift announced at the 40th anniversary gala in October 2022.
Kelly Villanueva, Vice President of Strategic Business Partnership at The Hanover Insurance Group, who helps coordinate the Sigma II Steps Up effort and leads the Women’s Affinity Group, noted that the Sigma IIs were a “very self-driven, self-motivated class.”

For her part, Villanueva’s time in LRI led to her joining the board of McAuley Ministries, which was the beneficiary of her Leadership-In-Action team’s project. The team introduced McAuley Ministries Executive Director Barbara Haynes to the CCRI Industry Partnership Program and helped secure the grant money needed to provide customer solutions training for women living at McAuley Village.

Haynes said she was thrilled when Sigma II member Alison Croke reached out to offer her team’s services on a workforce development project.

“We’re under-resourced to the nth degree, and we’re serving vulnerable populations,” Haynes says, noting that many of the women who live at McAuley are survivors of domestic violence, with children, low income and no cars. Some have been living in the United States for less than five years.

All of those barriers would have made it impossible for these women to attend workforce training off-site. It was “monumental,” Haynes said, to have CCRI offer the training at McAuley Village, where child care could be provided. Seven women graduated from the inaugural class, where they learned basic professionalism, Microsoft Office, customer service skills and call center structure. Their certificates qualify them to apply for customer service roles with companies like AAA and Amica, whose representatives joined a class to speak about opportunities. Haynes said the connection to CCRI would not have been possible without the Sigma IIs.

“It’s been really impactful, and it’s going to matter for the women that we put through this year and in future years,” she said. “I’m really grateful and glad that it all happened.”

Villanueva said it was a “heartwarming project to have been part of” and that her desire to continue her involvement with the organization led to her joining the board, where she shares her human resources expertise.

When she was going through the LRI program, she says, “I was at a point in time where I wanted to lean in and find a place in Rhode Island where I could personally give back. When we selected McAuley Ministries as our LIA Project, I really felt connected to their purpose and what they’re doing.”

Villanueva is not the only Sigma II who joined a board as a result of relationships forged during the Core Program. Four class members are now serving on the board of Amenity Aid, whose founder and executive director is a fellow Sigma II Liz Duggan.

“A lot of people heard my story and wanted to get involved,” says Duggan, whose nonprofit distributes hygiene products to direct service agencies that assist vulnerable populations throughout Rhode Island.

The Sigma II Women’s Affinity Group hosted a Period Packing Party for Amenity Aid, raising money to purchase the products in bulk and assembling them into kits. Rajotte is now the organization’s board president, and Lammis Vargas, Deb Honor, Norelys Consuegra are board members.

Duggan said it was part of the Sigma II culture to support and lift one another up.

“I’m proud to be part of a class that has really embraced the community support,” she says. “That’s really important to me personally and professionally to be surrounded by people of different backgrounds to support each other. It really made that a good home for me.”

 

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