For Us, By Us: The Leadership Lab

- Luisana Zambrano Diaz -

Since 2017, Radical Partners has invested in four cohorts of 56 leaders of grassroots nonprofit organizations in Miami-Dade County. They are leaders working towards solutions for issues that affect their communities, from access to nutritious food to girls and women empowerment, health, mental health, human services, and financial literacy. All of them are pivotal changemakers in their communities. 

In 2021, in light of the COVID-19 crisis and a global racial justice reckoning, we felt more compelled than ever to shift our focus to a new generation of leaders - local leaders who identify as black, indigenous, or people of color (BIPOC), at the forefront of social justice and racial equity movements in their communities and after successfully implementing the 4th iteration of Leadership Lab for BIPOC leaders by BIPOC leaders, we decided to invest in them again through our 5th Cohort of Leadership Lab.

This cohort of Leadership Lab was made up of 10 Neighborhood Heroes working towards community solutions from Homestead, FL to Broward, FL. They represent their neighborhoods, their solutions, and their identities with pride.

We include Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging at the core of everything that we do here in Radical Partners, and we would love to share with you some insights on how we invested in the capacity, sustainability and growth of this cohort of leaders for a second iteration in a row: 

  1. For Us by Us: It has been key for us to bring leaders and facilitators that also represent the communities they represented. This started from hiring facilitators and coaches that also identified as BIPOC. Through this cohort of Leadership Lab, we brought in seven facilitators with different expertises: Diversity Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, Storytelling, Pitch Practice, Mission and Vision development, and City’s Resources, three of them also served as coaches to the leaders. In addition, we brought in to the team five additional executive coaches that provided 1:1 support to the leaders.  

  2. A special emphasis on Mental Health and Wellness: We identified that organizational leaders, especially those who identified as BIPOC, suffer from higher rates of stress and burnout. Because of that, we intentionally embedded wellness sessions throughout all Learning Labs. These sessions were designed by mindfulness leaders Dido Balla and Leiva from Metamindset, taking into special consideration the need of each of the leaders in addition to highlighting the different mental health and wellness practices adapted to the identity of each of their identities. 

  3. Organizational Development at its core: According to the Racial Equity and Philanthropy: Disparities in Funding for Leaders of Color Leave Impact on the Table report of 2020, “Organizations led by BIPOC win less grant money and are trusted less to make decisions about how to spend those funds than groups with white leaders.”; therefore, through its focus on capacity building and access to resources, the program was designed to equip leaders with high-quality professional skills including theory of change, fundraising strategy, pitch deck, impact evaluation plan, and other building blocks that enable leaders to sustain their work and impact. 

I’m a true believer of collective power to solve some of our most pressing issues, wherever we are at. It takes the work of us all to address systemic issues that affect all of our communities. So how can you start supporting today?

For locals looking forward to engaging in the community and for funders and resources maximizers out there: Make sure you follow and support the work of all of these leaders. You can do so by donating, volunteering or cheering them on through all of their social media networks:

For those leaders who would like to continue investing in their leadership: Leverage some of the additional resources available for you out there such as The Miami Foundation’s Saltwater Fellowship or leverage the resources from our friends at the Community Wealth Partners.


Whether you would like to get inspired and embed these practices within your future programming, or decide to support these leaders at different levels, I hope these insights are helpful to you and that we can collectively be working together to make our ecosystem a more equitable place for us all.

Luisana Zambrano