Young Leaders Gain Practical Tools and Strong Relationships in New Fellowship

The Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion recent­ly con­clud­ed the inau­gur­al cohort of its Ris­ing Lead­ers for Results Fel­low­ship. The 21-month pro­gram sup­port­ed 13 emerg­ing lead­ers ages 24 to 31 in sharp­en­ing their lead­er­ship skills based on the Foundation’s Results Count^® approach. Equipped with new tools and strate­gies, these young pro­fes­sion­als now have greater capac­i­ty to dri­ve mea­sur­able and last­ing improve­ments for kids and fam­i­lies, broad­en their per­spec­tives and strength­en their net­works — skills they will car­ry through­out their careers.

“We select­ed young lead­ers work­ing in non­prof­it orga­ni­za­tions and gov­ern­men­tal agen­cies that fol­low the data on how kids are far­ing and work to remove bar­ri­ers that keep young peo­ple from oppor­tu­ni­ty,” said Bar­bara Squires, direc­tor of Lead­er­ship Devel­op­ment at the Casey Foundation. 

“In con­trast to pro­gram­ming for old­er lead­ers who hold more for­mal author­i­ty, our sem­i­nars focused on tools and skills that younger lead­ers could use, such as their infor­mal author­i­ty to influ­ence col­leagues and part­ners out­side their orga­ni­za­tion to align with the results they were try­ing to achieve. It was about being able to use what­ev­er tools you can from the seat you sit in.” — Squires

Focus­ing on Real-World Results

Fel­low Adanech Makey is the pol­i­cy and com­mu­ni­ty engage­ment spe­cial­ist at the Schuyler Cen­ter for Analy­sis and Advo­ca­cy. Like all Ris­ing Lead­ers, Makey set a pop­u­la­tion-lev­el result as her focus for the fel­low­ship — that all New York­ers have access to food and nutri­tion. Achiev­ing this result involves over­com­ing bar­ri­ers, such as access­ing pub­lic assistance.

“I learned the impor­tance of cen­ter­ing the result in every con­ver­sa­tion I have,” said Makey. ​“Because my work inter­sects with many dif­fer­ent pol­i­cy areas, using the Results Count frame­work and Results-Based Facil­i­ta­tion™ helps me weave them all together.”

LEARN MORE ABOUT RESULTS-BASED FACILITATION

Fel­low Aravind Boddu­pal­li, a senior research asso­ciate at the Urban Insti­tute, set his result to ensure that all Urban Insti­tute staff have the infor­ma­tion and tools they need to advance research on racial equi­ty and fis­cal systems.

“I began by think­ing through the lim­it­ing fac­tors for access­ing gov­ern­ment ben­e­fits, includ­ing lan­guage bar­ri­ers and lack of free tax prepa­ra­tion sites in some areas,” said Boddu­pal­li. ​“Then, I devel­oped strate­gies and resources to sup­port our part­ners on the ground that play a crit­i­cal role in inter­fac­ing with fam­i­lies on a reg­u­lar basis.”

Grow­ing Pro­fes­sion­al Con­fi­dence and Strate­gic Focus

Both Makey and Boddu­pal­li describe emerg­ing from the Ris­ing Lead­ers for Results Fel­low­ship with more focus.

“I come away from the Fel­low­ship a lot more con­fi­dent and acti­vat­ed to pur­sue my results work,” Boddu­pal­li said. ​“I am more clear-eyed and prac­ti­cal. I can method­i­cal­ly think through the strate­gies and the exper­i­ments I need to deploy.”

Makey found that the Fel­low­ship filled crit­i­cal gaps in her skillset com­mon to young non­prof­it lead­ers who are often asked to take on new roles with­out extra training.

“Before the fel­low­ship, I did the work that need­ed to be done, but I didn’t have the focus or the tools to be strate­gic,” said Makey. ​“It’s hard in pol­i­cy and advo­ca­cy because we’re always look­ing at the imme­di­ate next thing. Being able to remain focused on that long-term result has helped me to bet­ter pri­or­i­tize my work.”

Cre­at­ing Last­ing Con­nec­tions and Sup­port Networks

The Fel­lows also forged mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships that built their con­fi­dence and per­son­al networks.

“I’m sur­prised [by] how much these peo­ple feel like my fam­i­ly and my tribe,” said Makey. ​“I’ve loved learn­ing tech­ni­cal skills, but I think learn­ing to build and strength­en dif­fer­ent rela­tion­ships has been a pleas­ant surprise.” 

Boddu­pal­li found in the Fel­low­ship a safe space to move past his dis­taste for ​“net­work­ing” and build community.

“I have always found it awk­ward to access pro­fes­sion­al spaces as a young immi­grant of col­or,” he said. ​“But I was able to shed that inhi­bi­tion through meet­ing so many peo­ple. I feel more con­fi­dent in my own lead­er­ship because of what I learned from the oth­er Fellows.”

Learn about the Ris­ing Lead­ers fel­low­ship appli­ca­tion process