Transformative Leadership for Change nurtures the sustainability, solidarity and radical visions of BIPOC movement leaders in Colorado

Vision:

The Transformative Leadership for Change has a vision of strong, richly diverse, talented and passionate leaders that emerge, develop, continually grow and thrive, and, together build power with communities of color in Colorado.

Goals:

  1. Build a diverse peer network of leaders of color committed to building power in Colorado who have high-level personal and organizational capacities as well as the strategic mindsets to collectively advance major social change in the state.
  2. Identify the culture and conditions in the Colorado progressive ecosystem that support or inhibit the success of leaders of color. Encourage leaders to experiment with collective action that could change the landscape, including creating a community of mutual support.

To accomplish these goals we will:

  • Identify and support emerging and current people of color leaders
  • Encourage strong ally-ship and relationships among diverse leaders
  • Increase representation of people of color in leadership positions throughout the movement

Guiding Principles:

  1. The ability to win health equity, education equity, economic justice, immigration justice, racial justice, an end to police/state violence, housing justice, and other systemic change for communities of color depends on healthy, strong, and sustainable organizations and leaders.
  2. We trust Black, Indigenous, and People of Color leaders. We know that we have the solutions for the challenges facing our leadership – AND that the solutions we come up with will be beneficial for the entire social justice movement at large.
  3. We can only move at the speed of trust. We prioritize building deep relationships among BIPOC leaders that can endure outside the program and withstand losses, external pressure, and conflict.
  4. Funders and philanthropy must respond to the call of BIPOC leaders – we cannot change the conditions of our movement without transforming philanthropy
  5. We work to shift our mindset from scarcity and competition to abundance and collaboration.
  6. We spark transformation at four levels: individual, organization, collaborative spaces, and the larger movement ecosystem. Unless we work at all four levels, BIPOC leaders will not operate in conditions of sustainability or success.
  7. We believe in co-creation and co-design – participants have a direct role in creating an experience that works for them.
  8. Healing justice
  9. Be transparent & honest about the dynamics of race, power, and privilege and explore together how we can both navigate and change the dynamics that undermine our shared success.
  10. Recognize & honor the different styles of leadership and the different organizational.
  11. Balance our needs as individual leaders, as organizational leaders, and as movement leaders.
  12. Identifying challenges in the ecosystem and actively exploring possible solutions.
  13. Supporting leaders in key positions, and developing the pipeline of leaders who can grow into executive or senior leadership roles into the future.

Why is this important?

We are not alone in our mission to help support leaders of color and community. Read more about the importance of this work.

Four women of color executive directors in the Colorado social justice movement came together to design a leadership program rooted in our own experiences, needs and visions for change.
We created the TLC Leadership Fellowship, to bring “tender loving care” to our fellow BIPOC leaders fighting alongside us for a better world.

Meet the Leadership