Is this for me?

Lived Experience Leaders is designed to meet you where you’re at. Some questions to consider:

• Is there a part of your story or background that’s special – and may also have led to difficult experiences that have revealed a need for local change?

  • This could be: Race, ethnicity, gender, age, poverty, childhood trauma, loss, addiction/recovery, or many others

• Do you have a vision for community change you would be overjoyed to see – and a passion to create it?

• And/or have you started a community project, but encountered resistance or challenges you could use help with?

• Have you tried to get involved in the community but didn’t feel welcome, or weren’t sure where to connect?

• Have you felt – or feel – like a newcomer or an outsider in Winona?

• Have you wanted, or looked for, a relatable mentor in Winona who has a similar lived experience?

• Are you able to commit about 40 hours to a cohort leadership program across 9 months? The cohort is focused on community change, or growing what you’ve already created. Gatherings are one Saturday morning per month in downtown Winona.

• Participants are compensated and provided support for childcare, transportation, and more. You will receive mentorship, support, and resources.

What is the program?

The program brings together up to 12 individuals from the Winona area with diverse lived experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds. Each participant will be paid a stipend and provided financial and other resources to participate, and to pursue a community project of their creation. The program is designed and co-led by diverse facilitators and coordinators.

LEARN: Community leadership workshops

• Individual change: Unlock inner skills and capacities, develop a compassionate and sustaining heart for leading change

• Community change: Planning, team building, taking action, building power, overcoming challenges, managing conflict and politics, and more

• Culturally competent: Design, skill-building, relationships

IMAGINE: Project, leadership, service role

• Working one-on-one with each participant to imagine or develop an action for change, which could be a project or service role they’re passionate about, and rooted in their lived experience

CREATE: Develop, launch a project, or pursue a community role

• Connections to relatable project guides

• Consistent resources and support

• One-on-one guidance

• Small financial support

• Train participants to tell their own stories in ways that amplify their voices and generate support for themselves and their work

• And more!

The cohort program provides training and resources to amplify voices and support changemaking ideas of folks across the Winona area - including surrounding rural communities, whose lived experiences have given them unique and powerful expertise to create equitable change for Winona.

The program was designed with this vision of change: Diverse community members with lived experience owning their personal stories and journeys by reframing past challenges as gifting them with superhero talents to serve others in similar situations, and then receiving support to create community change focused on helping others with similar lived experiences, by providing mentorship, support, and addressing both the common and unique barriers to access and participation they face.

The cohort participates in immersive gatherings and workshops over 9 months. Each member creates a plan for their community leadership's next steps (something they’re working on and want to grow, or something new), and is supported and resourced through the Leaders’ Incubator Lab with guidance, mentorship, materials, small financial support, and connections, while continuing monthly group gatherings and check-ins.

All participants receive a stipend that simply honors their participation, have opportunities to receive direct financial support for their project, are provided consistent participation resources like childcare and transportation, and receive ongoing mentorship, support, and resources.