Our Approach
The Jackson Grown Leader Fellowship provides a structured program to help young leaders identify and address issues they care about. We provide coaching, introduce experts and offer a forum for Fellows to deliver solutions to other community leaders.
Our Curriculum
Developed specifically for the Jackson Grown Leader Fellowship and the Jackson-Madison County community, the curriculum builds on real-world experience by leaders in the public, private and non-profit sectors. It provides a clear, structured approach to examine challenges within a community. It aims to help students design ideas that are both practical and sustainable.
“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers. They can cut through arguments, debates, and doubts to offer a solution that everybody can understand.”
— Colin Powell, Former US Secretary of State
Identify Motivation
We encounter challenges everyday. Whether it’s a piece of litter on the side of the road, expensive groceries, or issues of violence, these stories can impact and motivate each person differently. At the start of each year, Jackson Grown works with Fellows to identify what issues motivate them and why. This provides a foundation for Fellows to begin understanding those challenges.
Understand Challenges
Once Fellows have identified an issue they are asked to begin analyzing what the causes might be. They are encouraged to dig deep towards exploring the many roots, layers and angles as well as the effects of the piece of litter, an expensive grocery bill or an act of violence. These webs of issues are, most of the time, complex and are important to understand before good solutions can be proposed.
Challenges and problems are relatively easy to call out. Effective, sustainable solutions however are very difficult to find. Combining the experience of Mentors and Experts as well as insight and creativity of Fellows, Jackson Grown shapes new approaches to community challenges. Fellows identify specific parts or angles of issues to which they can best contribute.
Build Solutions
Launch Visions
After having identified issues they care about, explored the roots of those issues and designed unique proposals for solutions, the Jackson Grown Leader Fellowship provides a platform for Fellows to present their visions to the annual Challenge to the City event each May. Top leaders from across Jackson-Madison County are invited representing business, government and non-profit organizations and take part in the forum.
