Celebrating Six Years and Sowing the Seeds of our Ancestors
Earlier this month, our growing team gathered at our Detroit office for a two-day retreat to strategize and connect with one another around the work and mission that inspires each of us. It was the first time we had engaged with one another in person in 18 months, yet despite the distance of remote work, the ideas and inspiration flowed freely.
But this moment represented more than just a team retreat. It also marked the sixth anniversary of our firm, a milestone that for us, and so many other businesses, takes on a much deeper significance.
These last 18 months have devastated so many, taken so many, and challenged each of us all in endless ways. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to each and every person who has lost a loved one, lost a job, lost a company, or more during this time.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic presented a new and terrible challenge to communities across our country and around the world, we know the struggles and inequity it further exposed and exacerbated are centuries old. And yet, in the face of tremendous uncertainty, loss, and pain, the last 18 months may have also offered a starting point from which we can all continue to make strides to build more equitable communities.
Committing To Our Team
At the onset of the pandemic, I vowed to myself and to my team that my goal was to retain all of our staff, not furlough, reduce hours or salaries, and actually increase compensation. This additional pay would support each of our staff’s health and wellness while also creating unique spaces for us to learn, grow and bond as a team.
Today, 18 months later, we stand as an organization that--by years’ end--will have also more than doubled our staff since the onset of the global pandemic; and scaled our partnerships, while remaining virtual for the safety of our communities and team. This growth has occurred not only in Detroit, where our roots run deep but also across our Washington, D.C., and St. Louis offices.
Reaching our six-year anniversary is not a milestone I take lightly, especially amidst this continuing global pandemic. It further grounds me and encourages me to be even more steadfast in my pursuit of service, impact, and excellence in the name of equity. It humbles me in ways I simply cannot articulate, yet can say I know I am blessed.
Deepening Our Commitment to Equity
Over the last year, our team had an extraordinary opportunity to re-design and tailor programs specifically for Detroit. One example was the 21-Day Equity Challenge with our partners at United Way.
While we knew the 21 days of content could be powerful in the lives and conversations of everyday Michiganders, we also knew we needed something more. Working closely with our partners and community members, we designed an arc of engagement that included a community kick-off (featuring the brilliant young people of Detroit Youth Choir), weekly community conversations, and a culminating event that was both celebratory of the challenge and grounding in the work we must all continue to do. In total, the challenge engaged nearly 5,000 community members across Southeastern Michigan.
Our weekly conversations were beyond powerful and were only possible because of the 40 dynamic community facilitators we engaged. They were not required to as part of the challenge, yet many community members who participated shared real human experiences asked authentic questions, and, most importantly, made meaningful connections with other individuals who are committed to advancing this work. The network effect of an initiative like this is incredible to think about. What if our 5,000 participants engage in conversations about what they experienced with at least 2-3 of their peers and encourage them to take action? It wouldn’t take long for the majority of Southeastern Michigan’s 5.5 million residents to begin examining beliefs, shifting mindsets and behaviors, and developing actionable steps they can take to create more equitable communities in their everyday lives. With the right vision and partnership, even the smallest pockets of hope can transform communities.
Investing in Black Leadership
In addition to our collaborative efforts with our partners, we have also launched and scaled several initiatives which deeply, holistically, and long-term invest in Black leaders. While we’d been planning as an organization to launch several leadership development initiatives for Black leaders at the start of 2020, with the onset of COVID, we knew it was imperative that we pivot our designs and speed up our timelines.
One example is our Community Impact Incubator that we launched as co-founding partners with our neighbors at Marygrove Conservancy. We knew that if we didn’t launch with urgency, the very nonprofits we wished to support and help scale may not exist after the pandemic. Bringing capacity-building and scaling design, along with holistic leadership development (including health and wellness and mental health experts), we knew we could offer something that we heard our nonprofit colleagues saying they needed time and time again.
Through our partnership with the Marygrove Conservancy, we created a year-long experience for Black nonprofit leaders that provided them with the technical and organizational support they needed as leaders and provided access to 500,000+ square feet of space on the Marygrove campus.
Today, we’ve graduated our first class of the Community Impact Incubator and are gearing up to open our application for our second class later this year. Each leader and organization in our first class has scaled their impact, grown their revenue, and are healthier because of the holistic support they received.
In the words of Devon Buskin, Founder and President of Detroit City Lions Youth Club and graduate of our first cohort, “The incubator program has not only provided resources, but it has also provided examples of what leadership looks like, what Black leadership should look like, that will effectively impact the community in a positive way.”
Another example of our recent investment in Black leadership is the launch of our Kanda Fellowship. Rooted in the power of true grassroots leadership, the Kanada Fellowship empowers professionals from Metro Detroit to become strategic leaders at work and in their communities by providing them with the tools, support, and network needed to enact even greater change.
The fellowship is inspired by the legacy of James Kanada, the “First Black Frontiersman,” who escaped slavery in 1865, formed a settlement near what is now Puritan Avenue in Detroit, and persevered in the face of racism with resiliency, tenacity, innovation, and leadership.
Through a six-month initial fellowship experience, participants gain development and support that helps them envision, chart out, and act on their next level of service, leadership, and impact. In addition, fellows are affirmed through connections with other grassroots leaders who are serving, leading, and thriving - locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.
When these leaders graduate from Kanada, they will continue to be supported--not only by SCP, but their village--which now includes 11 other Kanada Fellows and our Kanada Faculty. They will have the network and additional tools to boldly and confidently step into the next step in their career, leadership, and impact in their respective sectors, communities, and lives.
Building National Communities of Support
Last, but certainly not least, later this month, we will launch our first national cohort in partnership with Dr. Chris Emdin, Columbia University, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation -- the CREATE Accelerator.
This immersive development experience will provide a cohort of grassroots organizations with an opportunity to scale their impact with youth through culturally responsive practices and scaling their services and engaging with a national community of practice.
This opportunity could be a pivotal moment for each participating organization by offering support and resources that could shift and scale their trajectory. Ultimately, the CREATE Accelerator aims to contribute to and support our brilliant youth across the nation in fulfilling their potential and following their dreams--to be an aerospace engineer, a poet, a teacher in your hometown.
Later this month, we will announce our cohort, and we hope you join us in celebrating them.
Looking Ahead
Six years ago, I couldn’t have imagined where SCP would be today. Our team recognizes and celebrates that the collaboration and partnerships we are able to engage in today are the result of those who came before us and the shoulders we all stand on. When I think about our ancestors, I know this is beyond their wildest dreams—and I know there is yet much work to be done and good trouble to get into.
I know that we will see some of our impact in this lifetime; and I know that much of this work will take years for some to process, understand, adapt…I’ve already seen that happen in just this six years. I am fueled time and time again when I think about what is still ahead with our communities and people we deeply care for. This is just the beginning.
We have a duty to create equity because today, in 2021, it still does not exist. We have a duty to create sustainable and lasting equitable change that our children’s children will feel the impact of, the beauty of, the lifted burden of.
As a Black woman CEO that has broken several generational cycles of marginalization and burden, I personally know this is possible. I’ve seen it in my lifetime—in my own life, with my brilliant former students (who are now successful adults and professionals), in the lives of many we work alongside and serve. We see these pockets of hopeful equity and generational shifts and progress. Let’s amplify that, let’s scale it.
To do this, we must walk together. We must be passionate and deeply believe in this work and our communities, the communities we serve. We must strive for excellence--priding ourselves when we achieve it and committing to constantly learning to better ourselves and our work. We must act with integrity, always. And we must be unapologetically committed to creating and advancing equity with and for communities.
I know we can do this. I know it is possible.
In solidarity,
Dr. Chanel Hampton
Founder & CEO