We design and facilitate cohort capacity-building programs, including tailored training and coaching aligned with the community members’ individual and collective needs and objectives. Our programs simultaneously support cohort members in their individual paths of growth and influence and strengthen their organizations and networks so they and their organizations will have increased power and influence. Our cohort programs can include application review, webinars and office hours, design, co-creation, individual and organizational plan development, in-person retreats, and more. Our programs result in increased grantee buy-in, local and national economy uplift, and increased leverage for grantees to diversify their grant portfolios.
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
Since the project’s launch in early 2024, Cities & People has managed Liberty Hill Foundation’s Environmental Leadership Institute (ELI), facilitating the growth of grantees of diverse backgrounds in the first ELI Fellowship cohort. We maintain a nurturing collective space for the ELI fellows to be curious and to tackle serious environmental justice work, while also dreaming of and building a better future. In addition to direct work with the cohort, we are leading the design of the evaluation framework and tools to assess the project’s effectiveness in achieving its outcomes both annually and over the course of the four-year project.
Cities & People partnered with First 5 Alameda County from February 2023 - 2024 to guide their four Neighborhoods Ready for School Initiative grantees through a comprehensive four-year, cohort-based work planning process for their place-based kindergarten readiness objectives. We supported the four grantees in prioritizing the needs of home childcare workers, who are primarily women of color, as a strategy to support the local economy, provide more childcare to communities in high need of childcare slots, to uplift BIPOC people through entrepreneurship and wealth-building, and to increase kindergarten readiness of children in Alameda County, an important milestone to achieve for long-term academic success. These work plans will be used as a tool to leverage more funding for each organization’s place-based vision for their neighborhoods with both governmental and philanthropic funders.
