New Leaders Council Miami’s programming to accelerate solutions to local issues
Kubs Lalchandani is a national board member of the New Leaders Council, a nonprofit that recruits, trains and promotes political entrepreneurs of tomorrow. New Leaders Council Miami recruits fellows from outside traditional power structures and equips them with the skills necessary to be local civic leaders. Knight Foundation is investing $19,250 in the expansion of the organization’s Blueprint Series as part of its efforts to invest in Miami’s emerging innovators and entrepreneurs to build community, while fostering talent and expanding economic opportunity.
In 2013 Knight Foundation seeded the creation of the New Leaders Council Miami, a national fellowship designed to accelerate the training of local community leaders. We’ve graduated five highly impressive classes, totaling approximately 100 fellows, and now we’re expanding our partnership with Knight to leverage our alumni and training institute to encourage social impact solutions that use technology, grass roots organizing and strategic fundraising.
This programming, our Blueprint Series, includes conversations with local leaders regarding issues facing Greater Miami, workshops with community activists to catalyze creative problem-solving, and support for the fellows’ capstone projects that target and attempt to solve specific problems facing Miami.
Past Blueprint programming has covered a variety of issues. New Leaders Council Miami launched its series with a local gathering hosted by The New Tropic designed to engage young professionals in community activism. The chapter also brought together local lawyers and politicians to discuss Florida’s redistricting changes and challenges during a heated legal battle that wound up before the Florida Supreme Court. It also hosted a viewing of “3½ Minutes, 10 Bullets,” a documentary detailing the murder of Jordan Russell Davis, a student killed after an argument escalated over playing loud music, and the subsequent criminal trial. The screening included a question-and-answer session with Jordan’s parents and other local leaders fighting nationwide “stand your ground” laws.
A specific component of the reinvigorated Blueprint Series will be strategic support for fellows’ capstone projects. During the fellowship, participants are asked to identify a specific issue facing the local community that they are passionate about. They then deploy all the skills they have gained through the fellowship, including messaging, fundraising and organizing, to launch a project that tackles the issue. Past capstones have included the creation of a nonprofit to take underprivileged students to Africa, the launch of a grass roots organization named Engage Miami to increase voter turnout in local elections, and the development of an after-school program called Guitars Over Guns to encourage students to pursue music over violence.
New Leaders Council Miami anticipates three anchor programs during the 2016-2017 program year. In addition, it will coordinate smaller sessions aligned with capstone projects to bring awareness to the issues fellows identify.
The continued success of New Leader Council Miami’s growing impact on the community would not be possible without Knight Foundation, and we look forward to working together over the next two years to help find innovative solutions to Miami’s challenges. We look forward to recruiting and training the best emerging leaders in Miami, and to providing them with the resources to make Miami a better place to live for all of its residents.
The 2016 New Leaders Council Miami fellows are holding their graduation and fundraiser from 6 to 10 p.m. Thursday, June 9, at the Coconut Grove Women’s Club. Purchase tickets here. For more information about New Leaders Council Miami, email [email protected]. For more on the fundraiser, email [email protected].