The Call of Leadership Now: BIPOC Leaders in a Syndemic Era
Follow the link to read The Call of Leadership Now: BIPOC Leaders in a Syndemic Era article by our very own Neha Mahajan and Felicia Griffin!
Rerooting in Arts & Culture: TLC Awarded Imagine 2020 Grant
Arts and culture have long been rooted within communities of color and social justice movement building, but often times it can be separated from the work.
Earlier this year, TLC fellows started to reimagine how arts and culture can be integrated into the fellowship. They landed on establishing an artist in residence for TLC and we started looking for ways to bring this to life. Specifically, they wanted to find a community artist who could facilitate the integration of art into the productive flow of movement-building work and help transform TLC 25-year vision for social, environmental, and economic justice into a work of art. In early October 2018, we were awarded a grant in the amount of $3,500 to support an artist in residence. Read full press release here.
Local artist, Faatma Mehrmanesh, is bringing her gifts to TLC and crafting a piece that will represent TLC's 25-year vision. Faatma is deeply connected to communities of color across Denver and has created a number of pieces for local nonprofits and other groups. TLC is grateful for the support from Imagine 2020 and looking forward to more fully integrating arts and culture into its work.
Jordan Garcia, Co-Executive Director, American Friends Service Committee
“When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people.” ― Abraham Joshua Heschel
I have had the pleasure of taking part in the Transformative Leadership for Change Fellowship for the last year. Through the fellowship I’ve met the most amazing people, people I consider friends and thought partners. Each of the other fellows demonstrate an incredible thirst for knowledge and a commitment to the integrity of our shared experience together. It is apparent in our many collective accomplishments, both personally and professionally, that we are blessed to share space together each month. I believe many of us will stay connected for many years.
As part of the inaugural year of the TLC fellowship, I’m honored to participate in envisioning subsequent years and witness the emergent thought going forward. I have focused on my own personal growth through self-examination and relationship deepening. The facilitation of the fellowship stands out not only my memory, but is exemplary among others. And as such, I have accepted opportunity after opportunity to improve my ability to learn deeper from others. The curriculum is flexible and responsive and our group. We are gracefully facilitated through the nuances of our diverse perspectives and complex decisions.
I feel a renewed commitment to creating the type of change that serves our many communities and creates a space that I can feel both proud and inspired. Our success in the midst of such a challenging time cannot go unnoticed. The integrity of the process that led us here is the result of hard work and the ability to graciously admit set backs and creatively problem solve to achieve the end goals. We found that only together, with each of us contributing our invaluable skills, could we triumph. Together we brought many people and communities together to work toward a vision, but a vision realized.
Like the quote above, over the many years that I have led organizing efforts, I have grown to admire kindness and strength of character tremendously. This group has an extraordinary ability to listen for subtext and meaning. We share a genuine curiosity for the unknown and yet are humbly aware of our gifts. We share a belief that we ought to use them wisely and frequently for the betterment of all. That’s a community worth working for.
2019 Call for Fellows! Looking for Emerging Leaders of Color!
The Transformative Leadership for Change Fellowship (TLC) is designed & led by people of color leading social justice and movement building organizations. TLC resides at the intersection of three core principles: transformative practice, ecosystem analysis, and racial justice. We believe that the interplay between these principles will holistically build leaders’ individual capacity, while also over time become the foundation of Colorado’s social justice ecosystem and framework. These principles influence the framing of TLC as a fellowship - not a leadership development program. Strong leaders of color are already here, developed and working in the landscape. The fellowship raises their profile, builds their network of powerful peers, funders, and political actors. It is seeding transformation for the entire Colorado social justice ecosystem.
The 2019 cohort will be made up of 15-20 leaders of color who serve in one of the following roles: 1) Deputy Directors/Organizing Directors 2) Program Manager, Policy Director, Project Manager, Manager, or other senior leadership that are in a position directly below the executive director of an organization and manages a project, program, and supervises staff.
CALL FOR APPLICATIONS IS NOW CLOSED.
"I personally have found ways to embody my own power that feel good to me. I have brought in more money (a lot) to my organization. I have created alliances that could be game changers for my field. I can see internally where I get scared of my own authentic brilliance, where I have played small, and I can see how I cannot continue to serve my communities in the way that they deserve if I continue to move in that way. I know for myself, I can never be the person or the way I was before the TLC, and I am only half way through the year. Seeing myself reflected in the power, the humanity, the sheer caliber of leadership in my peers in the circle has shifted everything for me." Kristiana Huitrón, Executive Director, Voces Unidas for Justice
The Flower is the Seed Transformed | Kristiana Huitrón, Executive Director, Voces Unidas for Justice
“If your vision is for a year, plant wheat. If your vision is for ten years, plant trees. If your vision is for a lifetime, plant people.” Chinese Proverb
Change. Change is the goal of the work Transformative Leadership for Change (TLC), as evidenced by the name; change at the individual, community, institutional, societal levels; lasting change that fundamentally alters our environment, our conditions. This kind of change therefore fosters continued transformation and change (aka self-actualization) thus becoming a self-perpetuating cycle for the benefit of all life. This is a lofty goal - worthy, exiting, and while long-term in nature, is happening daily in smaller yet big steps.
One of the things about change is that it is scary, stressful, at times even painful, even when one knows it is beneficial and chooses it, on purpose. Knowing that to achieve the happiness or benefit related to it the change one seeks the change should be lasting and enduring. For change to take root it takes time and needs reinforcement, repetition, needs to take up residence in the body, the brain, the spirit and be lived through the heart. There exists a path that leads us to change -transition, and there is a process that creates this kind of change - transformation. A person can have an intellectual understanding and acceptance of a revelation only to see it dissipate in subsequent days. One needs a post-it note on a mirror to remember to take a new medication, or a mantra written on a phone screen, until either it becomes second nature or we risk it fading away. A person can deeply desire a positive change and still have base survival fears in the unconscious and shadow self will sabotage one’s success.
But that, exactly that, is why this particular path and process inherent in TLC is critical. This circle of leaders at different points of personal and professional development is a garden of magic, cross-pollinating, healing, reclaiming, celebrating and elevating each star on the constellation of Colorado leaders, each shining our own North Star to illuminate our own offerings, but also to light the way for others. The leaders of the TLC have developed a process and a path to work through the barriers to change. They step by step lead us into, around, over, under, through the parts of ourselves, in community, that would sabotage change. They make it easier for us to find common ground and a shared language as a group and guide the process of defining for ourselves the vision of a shared future.
I personally have found ways to embody my own power that feel good to me. I have brought in more money (a lot) to my organization. I have created alliances that could be game changers for my field. I can see internally where I get scared of my own authentic brilliance, where I have played small, and I can see how I cannot continue to serve my communities in the way that they deserve if I continue to move in that way. I know for myself, I can never be the person or the way I was before the TLC, and I am only half way through the year. Seeing myself reflected in the power, the humanity, the sheer caliber of leadership in my peers in the circle has shifted everything for me. I know that indeed I am the seed transformed, and that the garden in which I find myself blossoming is sure to perpetuate bigger, more beautiful, majestic, and nourishing crops that will fundamentally shift the plates of the world as we know it, for the best of all, for the highest good of life.
“The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit.”
-Nelson Henderson
May 2018 Update
Check out our latest update. We have much to share and celebrate! Our goals are finalized, we met with funders, and we are sharing our framework with partners at the national level.
Alexandra Alonso, Colorado Latino Leadership, Advocacy, & Research Organization
Alexandra Alonso, Colorado Latino Leadership, Advocacy, & Research Organization
Being a part of the TLC has been a truly “transformative” experience for me. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to share space with some of the most caring, supportive, insightful and powerful leaders of color who are at the helm of organizations serving marginalized communities all around Colorado. TLC has been an incredible conduit for me to build deeply trusting relationships with leaders in a way that would not have been possible in any other environment or programmatic format. My Fellow TLC brothers and sisters have become instrumental thought partners, partners in existing programmatic and advocacy programs, and strategic collaborators on new projects that will move us toward our 25 year vision for Colorado. This Fellowship is rooted in connection with our ancestors, personal and community healing, approaching our work in a collaborative way, building community power, and working together towards a future that we imagine for Colorado that is intrinsically connected with community.
Being the leader of a nonprofit organization is often a lonely and isolated position to begin with, especially when leading an organization that focuses on eliminating inequities and injustices that are entrenched in the systems and institutions our communities are navigating. It’s easy to become daunted, run until you’re on “empty,” and feel like there’s no solution to the issues that impact Colorado’s underserved communities. I am fortunate enough to have been selected to be one of this year’s TLC cohort which has become my beacon of hope, my lifeline when I’m feeling stuck, an incredible source of strength and joy, food for my soul, and the kindle that continually reignites the fire in my spirit to continue our collective work to achieve, not just equity, but liberation for our communities. I am in deep gratitude for this Fellowship, for our TLC family, and for the work that we will do far beyond this year because this experience brought us together.