Leadership Academy Retreat, August 2007

Leadership Academy overview

The YP4’s Leadership Academy provides an opportunity for 16 Fellows to engage in a year-long program that includes leadership development, organizational management training, and personal ecology training combined with one-on-one coaching and two 18-week, project-based paid fellowships in progressive organizations.

Leadership Academy aims to support and empower visionary, entrepreneurial young people to have leadership roles in the progressive movement and to strengthen our progressive infrastructure by connecting new and established progressive organizations with innovative and talented emerging young leaders.

The first retreat

The inaugural Leadership Academy Class was convened for the first of three retreats on August 5, 2007, at the Trinity Retreat Center in Cornwall, Conn. Ng’ethe Maina of the Social Justice Leadership Institute led the Fellows through five days of trainings specifically designed for post-graduate progressive leaders who are just getting started in their professional careers. Throughout the retreat, Fellows:

1. Learned methods for more effective communication;
2. Explored leadership as an ongoing process;
3. Learned methods for monitoring their own state of being and bringing themselves to their most resourceful state; and
4. Reviewed results from their 360-degree leadership assessments.

Fellows were introduced to practices such as:

• Vision stands: Five-minute presentations on their vision for the next five to ten years.
• Understanding change: Information and skills training to facilitate the Fellows’ understanding of how they can improve their personal leadership.
• Effective communication: How to actively listen and communicate with others.
• Authentic conversations: How to communicate your authentic self and how to prepare for and engage in difficult conversations.
• Acting from center: Practices for grounding one’s self in personal goals, both long- and short-term, in order to make strategic decisions and avoid "reacting."

The spirit of the retreat and events were documented by Shaunna Thomas on the YP4 blog.

More photos from the retreat are available.

"Meeting these extraordinary Fellows, I realized on an intimate level how truly vital YP4’s work is in sustaining leaders for our movement; each of the 16 Fellows is uniquely poised to make powerful and innovative contributions that will shape the future of our country."

"The leadership retreat provided both a supportive environment for each Leadership Academy Fellow to explore how they show up in leadership situations and a place to hone their vision on what type of movement they want to belong to."

Fall fellowship placements

From August 13 through December 22, Leadership Academy Fellows will engage in their first of two fellowship placements in San Francisco, New York, Denver and Washington, D.C. The fellowships are designed to provide Fellows with the opportunity to work in progressive organizations, action tanks, media organizations, socially responsible businesses and think tanks.

The Leadership Academy Fellows are working this fall at the following organizations:

New York:

• Harlem Children’s Zone
• The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force
• Harm Reduction Coalition
• The Rainforest Alliance
• National Black Programming Consortium

Denver:

• Colorado Ethics Watch
• Colorado Progressive Coalition
• Progress Now
• The New America School

San Francisco:

• AlterNet
• Greenlining Institute
• Movement Strategy Center

Washington, D.C.:

• People for the American Way Foundation