Leadership Development
Institute
Mission/Purpose
The purpose of the Crossroads Leadership Development Institute is to equip institutions that have committed themselves to the vision, analysis, and work of Crossroads with the methodology and technology necessary to create and train anti-racism organizing teams within their own structures.
Goals
The goals of the Leadership Development Institute are to:
- Facilitate the translation and adaptation of the Crossroads anti-racism analysis, models, and resources for anti-racism educating and organizing within specific institutional contexts.
- Equip institutional leadership with the skills to internalize and implement the Crossroads organizing and training process.
- Serve as a research and resource development center for anti-racism training/organizing.
- Provide a context for a learning community of practice in which institutions can evaluate and share their learning's, models, and resources.
- Build linkages with similar centers of anti-racism training and organizing.
Who Participates in LDI?
The readiness to enter into the LDI Core Trainer training process happens after an institution creates an anti-racism transformation team. It is necessary that the institution first grow into its anti-racist identity before taking the next step to train Core Trainers. Essentially, an institution must struggle with what it is trying to BE, before it can really determine what it will DO. This anti-racist identity will give direction to the journey of uniting the institution, integrating the team's vision and goals, and shaping the organic process of becoming an LDI partner.
Participation in the Leadership Development Institute's Core Trainer Training program assumes two things. The first is that an institution in this program enters into a new relationship of accountability with Crossroads. In sharing our materials, we know that our model of training does not always translate exactly into the life and culture of each institution with which we work. However, any adaptations that are made must be done within a partnership guided by our shared commitment to the analysis of racism. Collaborative work builds a new level of collegiality and intentional accountability, even while we understand that not everything about who we are institutionally connects in precisely the same way. It is only in a relationship of accountability that Crossroads will share our materials and processes (many of which are copyrighted) for adaptation.
The second assumption about an institution's participation in LDI is that it becomes part of a leadership body made up of all the institutions in the program. Not only does a new association grow with Crossroads, but also with the rest of the groups in LDI. Currently, this means that creative process, collective sharing and resource development happens in conjunction with the work of the Unitarian Universalist Association, Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Minnesota Collaborative Anti-Racism Initiative, Christian Reformed Church, and Crossroads, current partners in LDI.
The Apprentice Core Trainer Process
Once an institution's decision making body calls its community into the process of training Core Trainers, the Apprentice Core Trainers become engaged in a three-stage training process that generally spans 1 to 3 years, depending on each individual's own growth, skill development, organizing history, etc. This process is facilitated by shared institutional guidance in the Leadership Development Institute. Throughout these stages of training, Apprentices attend various events. The three training gatherings consist of:
- 3-day Orientation
- 5-day Skills Training
- 3-day Assessment
Internalization of Anti-Racism Team Development Model
The Leadership Development Institute equips institutions with the methodology and technology necessary to create and train anti-racism organizing teams within their own institutions. Essential to this process is the replication of the models, concepts and language of the Crossroads team creation and formation process, and the effective translation of this process into the language, culture and structures of each particular institution. Following is a brief description of each of the three phases of the anti-racism team development model:
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Team Creation During this step, institutions participating in the Leadership Development Institute translate and transfer the "Team Creation" planning and design models into the language, culture and structures of their own institutions. In this phase institutions also train and authorize institutional personnel to implement this process. |
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Team Analysis and Training
In this phase,
institutions participating in the Leadership Development Institute
translate and transfer the team analysis and training models into the
language, culture, and structures of their own institutions.
During this phase authorized institutional "Core Trainers" are
trained to implement this process. |
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This phase, focused on
internalizing the team organizing skills and strategy development model,
is currently in advancement.
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LDI Partners
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