You told us that action was needed to make local boards and commissions representative of who lives in Boulder County, and data corroborated that need. We learned that more skills-based training programs were not the answer. We knew we needed to find a way for emerging leaders to broaden their networks and think differently about whom to include. Knowledge in hand, we set out to expand the pipeline and idea of leadership for Boulder County.
Forty-seven percent of last year’s participants of The Foundation’s Leadership Fellows Program have already joined a community board or commission and an additional 20% have applied for one. Here’s what graduates of the Leadership Fellows Program say about the impact of the program on their work:
“One of the things I learned in the Leadership Fellows program is to be inclusive of all the different passions and perspectives at the table, and peoples’ different backgrounds,” said Eliberto Mendoza, Leadership Fellows Alm and Interim Director of Boulder County Community Action Programs.
Tiernan Doyle, Executive Director of Boulder Flood Relief and a current Leadership Fellow said, “The program helps build connections where they didn’t exist before. We have the opportunity to make new connections and rethink strategies, keeping the larger community in mind.”
Meca Delgado, Program Specialist with the Boulder County Community Services Department and Board Chair of the Longmont YMCA, said “The Leadership Fellows program gave me the opportunity to really think about who I wanted to be as a leader, and how I want to carry my voice – not just as a woman, or in the Latino community, but for anyone who needs a voice at the table.”
“The virtues of the Leadership Fellows program can’t be overstated,” said Eliberto. “If you’re interested in becoming a leader in Boulder County, if you’re interested in having a significant role in the crucial conversations that are happening, if you want to really understand what’s happening outside your own office and your own passions, and if you want to learn what it means to achieve true inclusivity…this program is the conduit.”
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