The Hope Collaborative leadership development program makes storytelling a core element of the experience.
Capable leaders know how to tell a story. Our program teaches young people how to tell their leadership story, and connect it with the pulse of their cohort's group goals and shared vision for the future.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" is a famous example of great storytelling.
Dr. King begins the letter explaining why he came to Birmingham in the first place, and what is it like to work as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He talks about the organizational ties that brought him there--and the organizational processes, like sharing staff, and financial and educational resources, that sustain the movement.
Read the letter to watch him pivot in a single sentence from relatively mundane organizational ties to his life's work fighting injustice. It is as if the furniture and staff in the office he is describing transform before the reader's eyes into the setting for a national campaign for justice. He explains the power of non violent resistance. He distills the power of the movement in a single sentence: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
He brings his situation alive from the belly of a dank city's jail. You can feel this leader's pain as he reaches through the walls of the jail to drive the momentum of the campaign for justice forward.
We develop leaders by teaching young people leadership skills. We also teach them how to write stories.
This week, our education partners at Family Life Academy Charter School in the Bronx, New York sent us these photos of their Hope kids and teens developing their story arcs.
Story arcs are one foundational element of crafting a leadership story. They help participants find their authentic selves through stories of courage and challenges that make them who they are.
Their beaming smiles demonstrate the energy of connection that leadership development and Hope can deliver. We are fortunate to work with youth advocacy organizations of FLACS calibre to together deliver on a promise of transformation and change in the face of overwhelming urban odds.
May your stories multiply in number! We look forward to your graduation in June.
Capable leaders know how to tell a story. Our program teaches young people how to tell their leadership story, and connect it with the pulse of their cohort's group goals and shared vision for the future.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from the Birmingham Jail" is a famous example of great storytelling.
Dr. King begins the letter explaining why he came to Birmingham in the first place, and what is it like to work as the president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. He talks about the organizational ties that brought him there--and the organizational processes, like sharing staff, and financial and educational resources, that sustain the movement.
Read the letter to watch him pivot in a single sentence from relatively mundane organizational ties to his life's work fighting injustice. It is as if the furniture and staff in the office he is describing transform before the reader's eyes into the setting for a national campaign for justice. He explains the power of non violent resistance. He distills the power of the movement in a single sentence: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere".
He brings his situation alive from the belly of a dank city's jail. You can feel this leader's pain as he reaches through the walls of the jail to drive the momentum of the campaign for justice forward.
We develop leaders by teaching young people leadership skills. We also teach them how to write stories.
This week, our education partners at Family Life Academy Charter School in the Bronx, New York sent us these photos of their Hope kids and teens developing their story arcs.
Story arcs are one foundational element of crafting a leadership story. They help participants find their authentic selves through stories of courage and challenges that make them who they are.
Their beaming smiles demonstrate the energy of connection that leadership development and Hope can deliver. We are fortunate to work with youth advocacy organizations of FLACS calibre to together deliver on a promise of transformation and change in the face of overwhelming urban odds.
May your stories multiply in number! We look forward to your graduation in June.
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