Image: Illustration of a young mama of color wearing a headwrap and large hoop earrings and carrying a baby on her back. She faces a crowd carrying signs saying “¡Justicia!” and “Love Makes A Family".

Stepping Into Power

Artist: Verónica Bayetti Flores

A movement-building fellowship for Strong Families.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why Stepping Into Power?

As women, people of color, queer, trans and gender non-conforming leaders who are building a movement, we are constantly swimming upstream. Oppression and a competitive culture increase isolation and often pit us against each other as we scramble for limited resources.

We all know that the status quo is not working for our communities.  As power becomes more centralized and farther away from the grassroots, we are faced with the stark reality that no leader or organization alone can make the changes we seek. Stepping Into Power is designed for leaders who are part of the Strong Families Network to deepen community with one another and gain transformative skills on multiple levels — individually, organizationally and for movement leadership.

How would we show up differently if our whole selves were welcomed and honored by our movement and by each other? What would it be like for us to work together from a place of abundance rather than scarcity? What more could we achieve if we built a community of leaders who could emerge from tensions and conflict with greater clarity and impact?

What We Do

The Stepping Into Power fellowship creates community based on shared values of interdependence, reciprocity, and collaboration. Our team of trainers:

  • help fellows identify the leadership style that best suits their talents and strengths;
  • provide tools for leaders to thrive in the midst of facing multiple challenges;
  • show how to build an organization that has core strength to achieve high impact; and
  • support leaders in making decisions for the big victories that happen over the long term, rather than focusing on tactical decisions for short-term gains.

Stepping Into Power fellows put the learning into action through projects that build their capacity as individual, organizational and movement leaders. Throughout the sessions, we are joined by master practitioners of Forward Stance, storytelling, and music to harness our full individual, organizational and collective power.


Learn more about this unique fellowship by reading the report on program impacts by Korwin Consulting.