The Community Leadership Institute kicks off its 10th year!
In late September, the Community Leadership Institute (CLI) program held its 10-year anniversary at the Northwest African American Museum where alumni across cohorts attended to celebrate the program’s impact over the last decade, catch up with one another and welcome the 20 incoming fellows to the CLI family. The event opened with a lively performance from the Anokye Agofomma Cultural Group followed by a welcome message from Sage’s Executive Director Chrissy Shimizu.
A panel of alumni shared their experiences serving on local boards and commissions and leading non-profit organizations, as well as their advice for incoming fellows joining the program. “Continue to be the leaders that you are in your communities. Take this opportunity to elevate your leadership, to be more courageous, to be more hopeful, and to just be relentless in pursuit of justice,” said Cinthia Illan-Vazquez, Co-Executive Director for Policy and Program at the Washington Bus and a 2019-20 CLI Alumni.
Representatives from our program’s funders such as Inatai Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Progress Alliance as well as facilitators and mentors of the program also spoke about why they continue to support Sage’s leadership development work. The concluding panel was led by Mountlake Terrace City Councilmember Dr. Steve Woodard and Renton City Councilmember Carmen Rivera, who shared their inspiration behind why they ran for office and their reflections around community leadership.
April Sims, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO delivered the keynote address, “As leaders, it is our responsibility to not just create a path for leadership, but to also widen that path outside of our own ideas of the leadership models that we have been raised with. Because not everyone has to or should follow the narrow path of leadership that we use to get to our positions. We must broaden that path, and if we can do that, then we create a sustained system that outweighs our leadership. Because none of us have all the answers by ourselves. Without multiple voices, thoughts, ideas, and experiences, we're limited in our thinking and therefore limited in our solutions.”
To mark the end of the event, alumni were invited to come up to the front to cut the celebratory cakes!
Read stories from fellows over the past 10 years, hear their advice for future community leaders, and learn about our collective vision of growing the next generation of leaders across Washington state.