Communities make better decisions when the people governing them reflect the people they serve. Emerging Leaders identifies Chicanas and Latinas who are interested in serving in public office and provides education on the responsibilities, legal authority, and governance of local elected positions.
Emerging Leaders develop a practical understanding of how local government functions, how public policy is developed, and how elected officials can make informed, transparent, and accountable decisions. Whether someone ultimately decides to seek public office or become a stronger community advocate, Emerging Leaders equips participants with the knowledge to engage effectively in local government.
Our program focuses on civic leadership, public governance, and community-centered decision-making. It does not endorse or support political parties or candidates.
Emerging Leaders gain an understanding of how local governments operate and the legal responsibilities of elected officials, including:
Training emphasizes the distinct roles of policy-making and governance, ethical decision-making, public accountability, and the relationship between elected officials and administrative staff.
Effective leadership begins with understanding the communities being served.
Emerging Leaders examine:
This work helps future leaders make decisions based on community conditions rather than assumptions.
Emerging Leaders receive education on how local elections function, including:
This portion of the program is educational in nature and helps Emerging Leaders understand the role civic engagement plays in representative democracy.
Emerging Leaders learn how public policy moves from an idea to implementation.
Curriculum includes:
Special emphasis is placed on evaluating policies through a BIPOC equity lens to better understand how government decisions can either reduce or reinforce disparities
Public budgets are among the most important policy documents government produces.
Emerging Leaders learn how to:
Training emphasizes how budgeting decisions directly affect services, infrastructure, education, housing, public safety, environmental health, and economic opportunity.
Emerging Leaders promotes governance that actively includes residents in public decision-making.
Emerging Leaders explore:
The program emphasizes that communities should be partners in governance, not simply recipients of government decisions
Emerging Leaders examine how policies, ordinances, budgets, and public investments affect historically underrepresented communities.
Training includes strategies for:
Our Emerging Leaders prepares Emerging Leaders to:
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