December 8, 2025, marked a different kind of gathering in Montgomery County—one designed not to end with handshakes and good intentions, but to begin with them.
Leadership Montgomery convened over 100 cross-sector leaders for the Montgomery County Action Table, a working session that acknowledges a simple truth: our county's challenges—federal job losses, lack of housing, food insecurities, and persistent educational inequities, to name a few—are too interconnected for any single sector to solve alone.
Participants—including executives, program directors, and community leaders from business, government, nonprofits, and philanthropy—broke into five focus areas:
- Transforming Educational Outcomes,
- Housing Affordability & Stability,
- Health & Well-Being,
- Economic Vitality,
- Civic Power & Participation.
Rather than listening to presentations, they mapped existing initiatives across the county, identified gaps and duplications, and surfaced early priorities where coordinated action could make a measurable impact. Each group was supported by facilitators and notetakers who captured not just ideas, but commitments.
The real work, participants understood, was just
beginning.
From January through June 2026, these cross-sector teams will meet monthly to combine capacity building and facilitated action planning. Leadership Montgomery will equip participants with the skills, mindsets, and practices required for effective cross-sector collaboration—then immediately put those tools to use by identifying 1–2 joint actions for each focus area to pilot in the second half of the year.
This is Leadership Montgomery's strategic evolution in action: serving as a neutral convening space where leaders can build the shared understanding, relationships, and coordinated strategies that strengthen opportunity and well-being across Montgomery County.
The December convening produced something increasingly rare in our polarized moment: leaders from different sectors, with different expertise and constituencies, agreeing to show up month after month to move from analysis to action.
No ribbons were cut. No proclamations were signed. Instead, calendars were marked for January's first working session.
In Montgomery County, the work of building a more equitable, resilient community doesn't end when the convening ends. It
begins there.
