An Update on Our Journey for 2023

Dear Center for Women’s Leadership community,

As the new year begins, we wanted to share an update on the Center’s journey.

In last year’s note, we shared that the pandemic and the national climate had given us the unique opportunity to reimagine who we are and what we do. And that as part of this reimagining, 2022 was a year of assessing community needs and asking for feedback.

Of listening.

I wanted to share back with you what we’ve heard. In 2022, we listened via: online surveys of both NEW Leadership™ Oregon (NLO) alums and our broader community; events and trainings; our 19th NLO cohort; and one-on-ones with community members.

Core takeaways are that the majority of our community members:

• Support our shift from women’s leadership to intersectional feminist leadership
• Want to see our programming expand beyond college students
• Want us to offer more transformational leadership programming (such as non-patriarchal leadership frames, anti-racist leadership practices, etc.)
• Want us to center our efforts on women and gender-expansive community-based leadership

This feedback has been instrumental in shaping the direction of CWL. In 2023 we will:

1. Equip emerging leaders through NLO. NLO is our flagship, cohort-based, immersive training program curated for Oregon college students. NLO’s intersectional feminist leadership training equips Oregon leaders to address the complex issues and needs facing their communities.

2. Train current leaders through Intersectionality Works! Launched in 2022, this is a five-part training series covering foundational concepts about gender, sexuality, intersectionality, and feminism, such as:

• Data on gender justice in Oregon
• History of gender justice in our region
• Intersectional allyship
• Reproductive justice
• Microaggressions: how they function and how to stop them

3. Convene Community with events like:

• Solidarity in Sovereignty: a March 2023 event to celebrate Native leadership, bring Native and non-Native people together, and focus on the priorities of Indigenous women and communities.
• Gender Justice Summit: a fall 2023 convening of groups across the state working on issues that impact girls, women, and gender-expansive people.

As we affirmed last year, the Center remains committed to serving the people of Oregon, to being responsible stewards of the funding we’ve received from our donors and from the state, and to equipping the next generation of leaders as they move into boardrooms, classrooms, places of worship, executive suites, legislative chambers, nonprofits, union halls, the streets and the fields, and wherever else their leadership can advance the wellbeing of Oregonians and the land we depend on.

Thank you for continuing with us on this journey.

In Community,

An Update on Our Journey for 2022

Dear Center for Women’s Leadership community,

As the new year begins, we wanted to share an update on the Center’s journey during what is a year of reflection and transition for us.

First: why a journey, why transition? 

In part because, as with so many others, the pandemic upended CWL’s structure, staffing, and programming. And in part, because the growing national calls for racial and gender justice require that all organizations pause to take a hard look at what that means for their work. 

This has given us the unique opportunity to reimagine who we are and what we do. 

• What models of leadership are needed to meet this moment, who we will serve, and what does a sustainable future look like?
• What does it mean to be a Center for Women’s Leadership in a world where more and more people are able to embrace being trans and/or nonbinary?
• How has the Center upheld racism, cissexism, and other forms of oppression in the past? How can we repair that harm and root out oppression in our programs and practices going forward?

These are the kinds of big questions we’re wrestling with. 

We recognize that change can feel scary. To the partners, supporters, and alumni who’ve known the Center over the past 13 years, we want to reassure you that we will continue to prepare women for leadership. What’s changing is we will also be preparing people of other marginalized genders for leadership and will strive to make sure that all program participants experience belonging in their time with the Center. We are thrilled to invite you to join us on this journey. 

Here’s what we’re working on, all with an eye toward shifting from women’s leadership to intersectional feminist leadership:

• Revising our values, vision, mission, and language 
• Revisiting our programming 
• Assessing community needs
• Creating sustained impact networks
• Exploring new partnerships

As we make our way down this path, we feel excited and nervous. It is our commitment to be vulnerable and transparent with you, our community of partners, students, NEW Leadership™ Oregon alumni, donors, and other stakeholders. 

Part of being thoughtful and intentional on this journey is making opportunities for co-creation and asking for feedback. We look forward to inviting you into conversation with us as we reimagine the future of the Center. We welcome your thoughts on what we’ve shared so far, and will be offering avenues for feedback in the coming months. 

Above all, we want you to know that the Center remains firmly committed to serving the people of Oregon, to being responsible stewards of the funding we’ve received from our donors and from the state, and to equipping the next generation of leaders as they move into boardrooms, classrooms, places of worship, executive suites, legislative chambers, nonprofits, union halls, the streets and the fields, and wherever else their leadership can advance the wellbeing of Oregonians and the land we depend on.

In community,