Join the Movement: Shape New Orleans' Future with the TOGETHER Initiative
We're thrilled to introduce the TOGETHER Initiative, a pioneering program aimed at unleashing the incredible power of our local heroes in New Orleans. This city, famous for its rich culture and incomparable spirit, is home to some of the most impactful leaders who emerge from the very heart of our communities.
At FFL, we believe in the strength that lies in unity and the profound changes that can occur when every voice is heard and valued. Our initiative is an open invitation for you to join a collective effort to mold the future of our beloved city. By participating in TOGETHER, you're not just joining a program; you're becoming part of a movement dedicated to fostering growth, collaboration, and the kind of leadership that springs from the community itself.
ABOUT THE TOGETHER INITIATIVE:
Foundation for Louisiana’s TOGETHER framework is a three-part (LEAD, Equity Caucus and Participatory Grantmaking) approach to building community and resident power around issues that matter most to Louisianians. TOGETHER reflects one of the Foundation’s deeply held values that residents carry the best wisdom to build sustainable and thriving communities. To that end, we provide intensive skills and issues-based training to best position communities to make positive changes through grantmaking, advocacy, organizing, and activism. At its core, the TOGETHER framework is an approach to participatory grantmaking that addresses some of the challenges inherent to many participatory approaches by providing a shared platform for learning and knowledge-sharing and a consensus-based structure for identifying priorities and processes. It has the added value of surfacing narrative, policy, and activism infrastructure needs to clarify local priorities for foundations and other investors in New Orleans from a resident-first perspective. It empowers residents to shape philanthropic strategies and set philanthropic agendas, helping course correct established practices inside the philanthropic sector that persist despite philanthropy’s ongoing reckoning with its extractive past and white-centered practices.
GOAL:
To recruit a diverse cohort of New Orleans residents to participate in Foundation for Louisiana's newest TOGETHER Initiative.
PROGRAM SEGMENTS:
Phase 1: L.E.A.D. (Leadership, Engagement, & Advocacy Development) - a series of interactive learning sessions that highlights the expertise of local leaders who present topics such as organizing, advocacy, policy change, power building, narrative shift, and building issue-based campaigns. Expect to participate in multiple learning sessions over a period of 4 to 7 weeks.
Phase 2: Equity Caucus - a convening of LEAD participants that determines focus areas of the grantmaking and the grantmaking approach.
Phase 3: Grantmaking - the process of receiving and reviewing grants to make an award via a consensus approach to decision-making.
Participants will be compensated for their engagement in this program. The compensation rate is $150 per session (sessions vary from four to six hours in length) up to $1750 for full participation in the initiative. Stipends will be processed to participants following each program session.
If you need assistance or have questions, please contact Jennifer Harding, Racial Justice Program Officer, at jharding@foundationforlouisiana.org.
The application period for this TOGETHER Cohort has closed. Sign up for the FFL newsletter today to be alerted about the next application cycle for this program and other exciting opportunities!