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Rockwood’s FELLOWSHIP FOR CALIFORNIA LEADERS OF COLOR is a multi-session leadership program for nonprofit leaders of color committed to:

1. Creating and sustaining compelling visions for their organizations
2. Inspiring and aligning others to work effectively towards common goals
3. Dealing more effectively with leadership and organizational challenges
4. Engaging with a powerful learning community of leaders of color throughout the state.

Over the course of nine months, the Fellowship is designed to teach powerful visioning, listening, speaking, presentation, coaching, team-building and feedback skills to emerging and established leaders of color working in California’s social change organizations.

FELLOWSHIP PARTICIPANT CRITERIA

Rockwood’s optimal criteria for enrollment in the Fellowship include a cohort of leaders who:

1. Are positioned in the state of California to help demonstrate new and better ways to lead and work together
2. Demonstrate personal/professional readiness to learn new leadership skills – including coaching, feedback, communication, and personal sustainability.
3. Manage and lead small to mid sized organizations (under $2 million budget)
4. Interest in and ability to partner with organizations outside their region in California
5. Are based in the following counties:  Alameda, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Marin, Merced, Monterey, Napa, San Benito, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, and Tulare

COSTS

With the support of the Community Leadership Project, Rockwood will cover the majority of fees and room and board costs. Each participant is asked to contribute $500 for their participation in the program.

APPLICATION DEADLINE

The nomination phase for the 2011-2012 Fellowship for California Leaders of Color is now open. If you would like to nominate a leader, please email Vanessa Camarena-Arredondo at vanessaATrockwoodleadershipDOTorg. In your email, please include the name, organization, email address and a brief description of why you are nominating this person. The deadline for nomination submissions is May 5th at 5pm PST.

For more information, click HERE.
Image source: Rockwood website

Yesterday, we were happy to see the Level Playing Field Institute‘s new report, ”The Voice of Nonprofit Talent: Perceptions of Diversity in the Workplace” get top billing in the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s daily update.

Please check out this timely piece by our colleagues at Kapor Enterprises and its implications for building, sustaining and growing diverse organizations.

Here’s a small excerpt to get you started …

Across the nonprofit sector, most employers share the belief that racial diversity is a key component of organizational health, performance, and outcomes. Yet, according to today’s nonprofit talent, few organizations are doing enough to attract and retain professionals of color. There is a perceived gap between the intentions and actions of nonprofit organizations when it comes to promoting staff diversity.

A common perception held by nonprofit professionals is that their employers value diversity, but that those values are not being translated into actions resulting in the creation of diverse and inclusive workplaces. For organizations seeking to increase the racial diversity of their staff, or retain their current employees of color, the ineffectiveness of mere “good intentions” around issues of diversity and inclusiveness presents a looming problem. Download the full report.

The Center for Social Inclusion invites applications for the 2011 Alston Bannerman Sabbatical Fellowships from long-time organizers of color who would benefit from the opportunity to step back, reflect, and recharge.  Fellows are awarded $25,000 to take sabbaticals for three months or more. Please forward and post this announcement widely, and encourage qualified organizers of color you know to apply.

To qualify for a fellowship, an applicant must be a person of color; have more than ten years of community organizing experience; be committed to social change work in communities of color; and live in the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, or the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Beyond the basic eligibility criteria, the program seeks applicants whose work: attacks root causes of inequity by organizing those affected to take collective strategic action; challenges the systems that perpetrate injustice and effects institutional and structural change;  builds community capacity for democratic participation and develops grassroots leadership; acknowledges the cultural values of the community; creates accountable participatory structures in which community members have decision-making power; and contributes to building a movement for social change by making connections between issues, developing alliances with other constituencies, and collaborating with other organizations.

Alston Bannerman Fellows use their sabbaticals to travel, study, visit with other organizers, read, write, acquire new skills, plan, evaluate, explore new interests, spend time with their families, recover their health, and restore their spirits.

For more information, click HERE.

To download an application, click HERE.

Image source: thefellowship.info

I am pleased to announce that the Kapor Foundation is partnering with CompassPoint Nonprofit Services to provide access to one-on-one consulting services and vouchers for CompassPoint one-day workshops to key partner organizations. We are also partnering with the David Brower Center to provide key partner organizations with the chance to use the Brower Center for a one-day event in 2011.

There are three CompassPoint consulting slots and 20 total workshop vouchers available.  Priority for these services will be given to organizations with budgets of $750,000 or below. Organizations interested in applying for consulting services must submit an online application by 5 p.m. on Friday, March 18, 2011. Additional information about the consulting and voucher services and a link to the online consulting application can be found on HERE.

The David Brower Center partnership will provide five key partner organizations with the chance to use the facility for a one-day event in 2011.  Space rental will be free of charge, but selected organizations will be responsible for all event production costs – including food and beverage, decor, etc.  Priority will be given to organizations with budgets of $500,000 or below who have never used the Brower Center before.

For more information about how to access the David Brower Center service, please click HERE.

Please contact me at 415-946-3021 or at tpriceATmkfDOTorg if you have any questions about these new services or other opportunities available through the Assistance & Advising Program.

image source: stanford.edu

Soon after college, I was taught and trained in a model of community organizing that had five core elements: base-building, campaigns, organizational development, alliance-building, and leadership development.  This last element, leadership development, has since been an area of work within the social justice field where I’ve found that I can both be incredibly inspired, but also incredibly frustrated.

So I was glad last Friday to attend Urban Habitat’s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI)’s information session in Oakland. [Read more about BCLI here.]  From the beginning of the presentation, it felt like leadership development done right. Many of the reasons why are evident in BCLI’s materials and on their website. I thought, though, that I would highlight two reasons that I hear us talk less about when looking at leadership development.

First, BCLI answers the question of exactly when and where their graduates will be able to practice the skills and use the knowledge learned through their program. It almost feels silly to credit them for this, as it’s why they exist at all, but I just don’t see that link too often. Groups that I’ve worked with have dozens of youth and adults go through their leadership development programs, but, and not to their fault, it wasn’t always clear where these members would then be able to all assume leadership roles.  Certainly the organizations themselves, with few resources and limited capacity, didn’t have enough open staff positions or even member leader roles available. Given this, BCLI not only points to the places where their leadership development program graduates can use newly acquired skills and knowledge, but also where all graduates of social justice leadership development programs throughout the Bay can now, if interested, play leadership roles and be supported in doing so.

Second, BCLI starts with the recognition of its participants, particularly poor and low-income communities of color, as being leaders in the room whose contributions and experiences will benefit their community, given the opportunity. This quality is one that has stuck with me from working with immigrant youth. It’s what I’ve understood to be the role model versus gang approach. While the former can provide a glimpse of a new reality for an audience, it could still also feel foreign and far off if their isn’t a deep connection with the speaker. The latter’s approach, on the other hand, proved instructive once we came to understand the appeal of gangs to Southeast Asian immigrant and refugee youth in the Northwest Bronx.  Rather than preparing youth to be leaders at some unknown time in the future, gangs, albeit tragically, offered responsibility and recognition almost immediately, allowing a place for them to apply and be recognized for the knowledge and maturity they had acquired growing up as the bilingual bicultural advocates of their community. Good leadership programs shouldn’t be gangs, of course, but I do think that they should include an approach that begins with recognition of existing leadership experiences and a trust to fulfill responsibilities based on this.

As someone new to the Bay area and to BCLI, I’m looking forward to learning more and seeing all that directly and indirectly comes out of this work.

* Title inspired by Paula Gidding’s book, When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America.

Are you dissatisfied with the government policies being made in your local community? Would you like to help make sure voices like yours gets heard in local policy meetings? Would you like to have a cohort of progressive leaders with the same leadership training available to support your efforts to make change in your community?

If so, you should learn more about Urban Habitat‘s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute at their upcoming information session!

Urban Habitat’s Boards and Commissions Leadership Institute (BCLI) identifies, supports, trains, and places low-income people and people of color in priority boards and commissions seats around the Bay Area. The BCLI prioritizes seats that influence equity in the areas of transportation, equitable development, housing, jobs, and climate change. Graduates form a network of progressive leaders who are technically and politically prepared and supported to make decisions that reflect the needs and interests of low-income communities and communities of color. Graduates have the capacity and community support to advance a regional agenda for economic, environmental, and social justice and serve as the next generation of progressive officials who are representative of and accountable to the region’s most burdened populations.

Come hear how the BCLI has empowered and supported the next generation of advocates working for and representing the needs of low-income communities and communities of color, and learn about the nomination, interview, and selection process. You will also be able to meet Alumni who will be available to answer questions and share their experiences.

Logistics:

Date: February 18th, 2011
Time: 9:30 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Location: East Bay Community Foundation, 200 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, Oakland

RSVP to Riana Shaw Robinson at riana(AT)urbanhabitat(DOT)org!

Image Source: Urban Habitat, 2009 BCLI Graduates

Please help spread the word to people in your network about the call for nominations for the $100,000 Purpose Prize.

In its sixth year, The Purpose Prize provides major recognition to community leaders, 60 years and older, who are creating new ways to solve our most pressing social issues – from health care to the environment, poverty to education. It is the nation’s only large-scale investment in social innovators in the second half of life.

I’ve served as part of the selection process for the past three years, and the nominations and work from people throughout our communities is amazing, as are the entrepreneurial ideas that people develop.

Nominations – including self-nominations – are due by March 31, 2011 at www.encore.org/prize.

Do the following characteristics describe you?

• A person of color
• Work in a Bay Area health and human service organization
• Currently in a mid-level management position
• Have at least 2 years experience managing people and budgets
• Have never been an executive director
• Plan on staying with your organization for the next year
• Have a commitment to social change

If so, you’re eligible to apply to CompassPoint’s Next Generation Leaders of Color leadership development (NGLC) program!

NGLC, sponsored by the California Wellness Foundation, is an intensive leadership development program for managers of color working in Bay Area health and human service organizations. Using a multicultural leadership framework, NGLC focuses on two management areas critical for community-based managers and leaders to be successful. The first area is to supervise, develop, inspire, and influence people. The second is to develop business acumen with an emphasis on financial strategy, comprehension, and literacy.  The program will include a 360-degree assessment tool, in-person seminars, facilitated peer-learning groups, leadership/executive coaching, and a final cohort gathering.

Applications are due February 4^th. For program details, eligibility requirements, and to apply online, please click HERE.

Image source: Compasspoint website

This is another reminder about the Kapor Foundation’s first ever Grant Application Workshop that we will host at our offices (543 Howard Street, 5th Floor, San Francisco) next Tuesday, January 11, 2011, from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. This is an opportunity for current grant recipients and other interested nonprofit organizations to learn more about our grantmaking strategies for Green Access and Voting Integrity and Civic Engagement.  It’s also a chance for current grant recipients, particularly key partner organizations, to find out how to access various additional supports, including some new opportunities, as part of our Assistance & Advising program.

I’ve received some inquiries as to whether or not this is a mandatory meeting for our current grant recipients, and the answer is no.  If you have the time and staff (any and all staff are welcome to attend) who are interested in attending, then we welcome you.  All you need to do is to register by clicking HERE.  I hope to see many of you next Tuesday!