Lee Scott wandered into his parents’ living room in Jackson, Miss., late one evening. His mother, an avid viewer of the nightly news, sat watching the evening’s broadcast. The next segment began introducing a new network providing opportunities for community activists to engage with one another and to share the work they were doing. Scott’s mother looked over at him to ask if he was interested, but he was already on his laptop typing the website address displayed on the television screen.
After a bit of research, he decided to apply to the Change Collective, a national leadership network for rising local leaders that includes a six-month leadership-development program. The Chance Collective selects members who exhibit passion for making a difference in their communities. The organization’s goal is to equip the members with the tools, resources and skills needed to create and to lead change.
The Change Collective’s inaugural class consists of 75 members with cohorts from Jackson, Chicago and Detroit. Photo courtesy Civic Nation
“We are living in a time where there is increased polarization and where there’s increased divisiveness,” Kalisha Dessources Figures, leader of the Change Collective, said. “We’re also living in a time where there are real problems to solve on the local level. And there are leaders—local change agents, young folks, folks who work across different industries—who really want to get involved and understand how they can push change more in their communities. So we are building this national network that will be made up of local cohorts of local leaders.”
After being accepted as a member of the inaugural Jackson cohort, Scott joins an eclectic group of 24 other community changemakers. That includes members like Vilas Annavarapu, who is a co-founding member of a worker and entrepreneurship incubator in south Jackson called Riverside Collective, and Angela Grayson, the director of advocacy and organizing for The Lighthouse | Black Girl Projects.
Other members include middle-school teacher Williesha Mack, entrepreneur Ashlee Kelly, surgeon Jared Davis and deputy general counsel for the Jackson Public School District Shani Anderson.
“It is a phenomenal opportunity to meet people from different
Read original article by clicking here.