SADIE NASH LEADERSHIP PROJECT INC
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Mission Statement
Sadie Nash Leadership Project, founded in 2001, provides award-winning experiential social justice education to over 500 young women and gender non-binary youth in New York City and Newark each year. Operating at the intersections of love and rigor, Sadie Nash Leadership Project utilizes the methodology of popular education to build community, critical consciousness, and college and career readiness for our students. We lay a foundation so that our participants (whom we refer to as Nashers) can lead lives in committed pursuit of joy and liberation for themselves and their communities. Over eighteen years, we have built a community of Nashers and Sadie Nash alums who have grown into young adults in the context of our supportive programs.
About This Cause
SNLP work responds both to the gender gap that persists within economic, political, and social spheres, and to the rising extracurricular gap between low and middle-income youth. Almost all our students (or “Nashers”) are women of color, and many come from working-class or low-income families. Statistics from our 2018-19 year indicate that over 92% of participants qualified for free or reduced school lunch, 66% received government subsidies and/or live in public housing, a foster home, or shelter; and 90% participated in no other enrichment programs. A full 40% of our participants spoke a language other than English at home and 95% of students enrolled in our college access programming were first-generation college-goers. SNLP’s work addresses the fact that low-income young women and gender-expansive youth, particularly youth of color, are not recognized within society as leaders and consequently do not realize their own leadership potential. Programming at SNLP supports young people to both recognize and understand the structural oppression they face on a daily basis and to also recognize and amplify their personal and collective agency within a supportive community. SNLP is a unique learning environment because we intentionally create safe (emotionally, physically, and intellectually) educational spaces for low-income girls and young women. As noted in an article about SNLP published in the American Journal of Community Psychology, our program helps young women to overcome structural challenges, such as racism and sexism, by offering them opportunities to express themselves in a safe and non-judgmental educational environment, demonstrate self-efficacy, and give and receive mutual support. The Sisterhood Model At the completion of each one of our programs, we present our Nashers with a t-shirt. The colors vary from year to year but the bold block lettering always carries the same message: “THIS IS WHAT A LEADER LOOKS LIKE.” We know that we have succeeded when Nashers slip the shirts on with ease - no awkwardness, no hesitation, no playing small. We have five key components of what we deem our “Sisterhood” model to support our Nashers in recognizing their leadership: Sisterhood: We understand that true leadership results from collective power; positive relationships among girls/young women and gender-expansive individuals are a key source of power and can build a movement for social change; Leaders Like Us: We know that our Nashers cannot be what they cannot see and we strive to surround them with loving role models - deans, faculty, and visiting speakers who have stories, trajectories, and identities in whom Nashers can see themselves; Social Justice Education: We are focused on critical consciousness: supporting our Nashers to examine structural oppression through the lens of their political experience. We are committed to teaching through popular education to ensure that the information is accessible to all; Leaders Now: We repeat this at SNLP at all times - that our Nashers are leaders now and we are always looking for opportunities to acknowledge when Nashers demonstrate leadership; Safe(r) Space: We recognize that no space can be fully safe, but we try to create and cultivate spaces in which Nashers can be vulnerable and let down their guard. We are also vigilant about encouraging Nashers and ourselves to question oppressive language and behavior whenever we witness it. Through the Sisterhood model, we are accountable for centering youth voices and incorporating young people in decision-making at the organization. Our approach to youth leadership fundamentally interrogates and transforms the power dynamics and adultism that often show up in less critically conscious youth development spaces. We continually examine and refine our model. We are now working to be more gender-inclusive and equitable through: a) involving Sisterhood participants and alumni in determining the future vision for the program, including changing the program’s name to be more inclusive of their trans or gender expansive peers; b) collaborative work to update the curriculum; c) professional development for all staff on gender equity and creating safer spaces for gender-expansive youth.