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As the sector reckons with the profound conflict between charity and power-building frames, we see more explicit valuing of lived experience as a qualification for leadership. Elevating directly impacted people to positions of power on staff and board is a form of accountability to an issue or movement. This week, we hear from executives directly impacted by the issues their organizations address. Take in their stories and let us know if your organization is working from a similar commitment by answering this week’s Leadership Question.
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Xavier McElrath-Bey became co-executive director at the Campaign for Fair Sentencing for Youth (CFSY) last year. As a 13-year-old child, he received a 25-year sentence. In this 5-minute video, he talks about ICAN, the network he helped build for other directly impacted leaders, and about his path from incarceration to positional leadership. Watch the video…
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Valverde, the CEO of YouthBuild USA, experienced all the hardship that his organization’s young participants are living though now. In this brief excerpt from NPQ’s Tiny Spark podcast, he makes precise connections between his lived experience and his leadership today. Listen to the clip…
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Is lived experience required or highly desirable for senior staff, executive, and/or board of director positions at your organization? Has this always been true, or is it a more recent stance toward leadership relevance? What are you learning? Answer here…
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In his blog, “The Value of Lived Experience,” BoardSource’s vice president of leadership initiatives and education, Jim Taylor, argues that too many nonprofit boards are “missing a focus on lived experience—having individuals on the board who understand in a real way the issues and challenges that they are working to address.”
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