In fall of 2023, the Steelcase Foundation launched the inaugural cohort of the Brilliant Leaders Fellowship, which invests in the professional development and social and emotional growth of local community nonprofit leaders to elevate their voices, power, and impact, and to support the mutual goals of navigating and transforming systems. This initiative addresses the need for emerging nonprofit leaders to have time and structured opportunities to learn outside of their day-to-day work environments, build supportive relationships with systems and community leaders, reflect on their work and purpose, and re-energize from the emotionally heavy work they do.
Hear from Alisha Lauchie’, co-director of Urban Core Collective, as she shares her experience in the fellowship.
Name: Alisha Lauchie’
Organization Name: Urban Core Collective
Brief overview of your organization and what you do.
Urban Core Collective (UCC) is an organizing and advocacy organization that works alongside community to dismantle systems of oppression, build people power and imagine and pursue new ways of being for communities of color that include liberation, joy, and equity. Our current focus areas are Education Justice, Environmental Justice, Emerging Leaders, and Democracy.
Please provide an overview of your experience participating in the Brilliant Leaders Fellowship to date.
My experience in the Brilliant Leaders Fellowship has been everything I didn’t know I needed. I transitioned into my leadership role at UCC about 2 years ago (though it still feels much more recent), and this new role has served as a catalyst for growth and unlearning what I thought to be true about leadership. Being in the Brilliant Leaders program surrounded by other leaders who are on a similar journey as me made me feel affirmed, encouraged, challenged, and seen. The program pushed us to interrogate assumptions, challenge the status quo, and find ways to stretch our imagination in order to find strategies and solutions that bring us closer to liberation and collective impact.
Describe the activities you engaged in.
We engaged in a span of activities that included technical leadership training and support, relationship building, and leaning into rest and play as a form of care of sustainability. For leadership training, we dove into readings and discussions that supported our critical thinking around issues we face as leaders and how we address them. We also learned a model/framework for engaging in listening with one another and offering thought partnership. For relationship building, we were able to step away from the busyness of our day to day lives to share space with one another, to eat together, to have conversations, to listen to stories, and to share affirmations and gratitudes. As we discussed the work that we’re all doing as leaders, we noted the ways that leadership often drains and exhausts us. This is because of societal norms and constructs that push productivity, grind, extraction, and exploitation. We resist these oppressive constructs by embracing our humanity, taking time to tend to our bodies, and allowing ourselves to experience joy. In the spirit of this, our activities also included engaging in games, relaxing, and having space for quiet time.
What have you found most impactful so far?
Two things were the most impactful thus far in this experience. 1) The relationships that I’ve been able to build have been incredibly rich and meaningful. I’ve gotten to know people that I feel like I can be vulnerable with, that I can go to for help and support, and that I can also offer support to. 2) Having space to be able to step away from my day to day life in order to focus on my leadership, imagining and dreaming, and also relationship building and rest were huge!
What do you hope to accomplish through the remainder of the Fellowship?
Through the rest of my fellowship I hope to continue connecting with and collaborating with my fellow cohort members. It has been such an honor to build relationships with my cohort members and I plan to continue to stay in touch with them, find opportunities for us to work together in order to have collective impact and to also share any resources and tools that help each of us move further faster together.
How has this experience benefitted you as a leader of a nonprofit? How has this experience impacted your organization?
This experience allowed me to examine the ways that I can continue to grow and support the work of my organization and to also support the team that I have the privilege of working alongside everyday. I’ve been encouraged to continue to interrogate and examine ways that the nonprofit industrial complex may be at play, how to reimagine the ways we work, and how to continue to test and try new models and frameworks.
What learnings would you lift up from the Brilliant Leaders fellowship to the broader nonprofit and philanthropic community?
I’d lift up the need to support leaders and organizations in ways we may not always think of. 1) We discussed the need that leaders have for rest, support, time for sabbatical, and time to dream and imagine. This gives space for innovation, for supporting our full selves, and to support the sustainability of this work and our leadership. 2) It is important to challenge norms and even the way we think about non-profit work as a whole. It’s easy to fall into traps of things “needing to be done this way” or “we’ve always done it this way”. Often times this isn’t true. So asking ourselves questions around how we can make our work more liberatory, how we can work together to make collective impact, and how we can resist oppressive structures and the non-profit industrial complex. Additionally, thinking about how we can also embrace and pursue funding for non-profit work that is unrestricted and supports the entire ecosystem of our work from overhead costs and thriving wages, all the way to supporting learning and innovation, care and rest, and advocacy efforts.
What might you share with other nonprofit leaders interested in applying for the next cohort of Brilliant Leaders?
Do it! It can be very easy to second guess ourselves and question whether or not we are worthy, qualified, or experienced enough to be in spaces like this. But the answer is that you are! One of the things that makes Brilliant Leaders so valuable is the diversity of experience, background, approaches, personalities, and so much more. Even if you are newer in your leadership career, you have value and wisdom to add. If you’ve been in leadership for several years and have done many different leadership programs before, there is still more to learn and more ways you can grow. No matter where you are in your leadership journey, this program is a great option.
Is there anything else you’d like us and/or the community to know?
We live in a culture and society that is filled with comparison and false ideas of success, value, and accomplishment. Just remember to lean into your own strengths, your own greatness, and your own lived experiences. Not only that, but you are more than what you produce. Even as a leader, your time of resting is productive, your time of play is valuable, and leaning into your humanity is a great model of what living a liberated life can look like.
