In my work at Crossroads Fund, it is always a privilege to witness grassroots leaders giving voice to the social justice issues that directly affect them. One of my most memorable site visits from this past spring’s grantmaking cycle was facilitated entirely by volunteer leaders from the organization’s constituency – in this case, low-income seniors from Jane Addams Senior Caucus working for better, more affordable housing and healthcare. The seniors told us about the strength and knowledge they have developed as they’ve advocated for policy changes and encountered powerful decision-makers whose agendas are not always transparent. They told us about the challenging but transformative process they are currently engaged in to become a more antiracist organization, and how these discussions have pushed them to reflect upon their own experiences of both privilege and oppression to better understand how they are connected to broader systems.As social justice activists, some of us are accustomed to thinking about leadership only as a means to an end. We develop leaders so that we can more effectively bring about changes in policies and institutions. But when we ask grassroots groups to tell us how they know they know they have succeeded in achieving their social change goals, many of them tell stories about the growth of their leaders, indicating that they see the development of their constituency as an important end in and of itself. Examples include the development of concrete skills and knowledge – like when the parents at Whittier Elementary School in Pilsen talked about being able to read and understand Chicago Public Schools’ budgets – as well as the deepening of analysis, as when low-income tenants from Southside Together Organizing for Power in Hyde Park-Woodlawn told us what they had learned about globalization, “neoliberal” economic policies and the relationship of these policies to the inequality they experience in their neighborhood.Developing community leadership often has an impact beyond Chicago. Many new leaders supported by Crossroads Fund have gone on to make change at the national level. Over the last year, we’ve seen organizers from the Immigrant Youth Justice League step into the national spotlight and organize with their peer across the country against anti-immigrant legislation. And United African Organization Executive Director Alie Kabba was recently named one of The Grio’s 100 African Americans Making History Today. For the past year, we at Crossroads Fund have been working very hard, in cooperation with community members, to design a tool to better understand the impact of our social change work and its contribution to social justice movements. Part of this tool involves identifying the different kinds of social change we and our grantees are creating. This includes the change that happens within communities as a result of strong leadership development. The cultivation of leaders is itself a critical form of social change, regardless of whether our work results in changes in policy or mainstream culture, because of the transformation that happens within communities when members strengthen their collective voice and capacity for self determination. This building of skills, relationship and analysis also makes our work more sustainable and gives it momentum beyond the campaigns of individual organizations – the definition of movement-building.
