THE SPIRIT ALIGNED FELLOWSHIP AWARD APPLICATION The Spirit Aligned Leadership Program exists to elevate the lives, voices and dreams of Indigenous Elder women who are working to heal, strengthen and restore the balance of Indigenous communities. An inaugural circle of eight Legacy Leaders will be supported in a three-year commitment with the balanced goal of empowering and impacting individuals to increase both their personal and public sustainability. Legacy Leaders are connected knowers, co-creators empowered to identify their values, inherent purpose, and experiences in self-determined ways for the sake of their people, their communities and the sustainability of meaning of the worlds they hold up. Circles of Legacy Leaders will be supported with resources so that they may inspire and impact a larger, more public audience across interrelated focus areas: Violence against girls, women and the earth, Leadership of Indigenous girls and women, Indigenous cultural expression, Healing from historic trauma and oppression and Indigenous education.
APPLICATION DEADLINE: July 20, 2017 SELECTION ANNOUNCEMENT: August 2017
BENEFITS OF THE PROGRAM Legacy Leaders are invited to a self-determined, culturally safe program that aims to build on the strengths of the individual in relation to self and others. Legacy Leaders will receive support and opportunity as desired as they endeavor to share narratives. Legacy Leaders will receive a $75,000 fellowship award annually for 3 years to increase their personal financial security and sustainability. Legacy Leaders are supported with individualized coaching and support over the three-year period of participation: • Provide individual needs assessment • Elevate communications capacity • Identify and interrelate stories, spiritual expressions, knowledge and the resiliency of unstudied voices for the purpose of creating a bundling of knowledge of importance for the benefit our own communities and future generations. • Enhance content development for personal and public representation for sustained relevance and visibility Gatherings of Legacy Leaders will involve: • Sessions and other interactions with Spirit Aligned program staff, advisors, and purposefully connect with one another • Intention to build trust and group agreements • Expansion and deepening of network relationships • Engagement in shared ceremonial processes to approach the spiritual dimension • Sharing with the circle significant stories, challenges and priorities in their community work.
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REQUIREMENTS Each selected fellow must: Stand with a three-year commitment to The Spirit Aligned Leadership Program and their Legacy Leader circle Attend 2 gatherings per year (1st week of October and April), maintaining regular communications with their circle and coaches Openly share and receive knowledge for the purpose of creating a bundling of knowledge of importance for the benefit our own communities and future generations. Bundle personal and public resource materials to place these resources in their cultural and historical context for current Indigenous women organizers to access and use in their community work.
ELIGIBILITY Must be an elder North American Indigenous woman • American Indian, First Nations, Metis, Inuit, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian or Indigenous people of Mexico If Urban based, the individual must have active ties and relationship to an Indigenous community Age of Elder leaders is 60 and over or demonstrated Elder standing in their community Is ready and willing to share her grandmother wisdom with her Legacy Leader circle as she determines is appropriate Carries her commitment to promote and regenerate relationships to land, sacred sites, nature, language and the dignity of women and girls In transition, in a mind to share the culture and experience that she lives to emerging next generation leaders Presents herself in a self-determined online capacity on our Spirit Aligned website and other social media for the purpose of sharing her voice in support of Indigenous worldviews, thus strengthening Indigenous identity, values and cultural expression. If you know someone who is eligible, please encourage her to apply.
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T HE S P I R I T A L I G N ED F EL L O WSHI P APPL I C ATI O N APPLICATION PROOF OF TRIBAL AFFILIATION REFERENCES UPON REQUEST
Name
Name you prefer to be called if different from above
Tribal Affiliation
Age
Address
City
State / Zip code
Phone
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APPLICATION QUESTIONS PART I: TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF Indigenous Elder Legacy Leaders add value and meaning to the lives of people to whom they are connected. We seek to understand who you are within your people and your community. Please give brief answers of no more than 500 words.
Who are your People? Expanding thru your generations who are your people? (250 words)
Identify a relative who influenced your thinking and practice from your own Native lineage. (250 words)
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Share briefly a description of a mentor with whom you still keep in touch in the arc of your life’s journey thus far who has impacted who you are as a leader. (350 words)
Briefly describe one historical force or condition that shapes the current reality of your community. (250 words)
What primary values do you model to your people (e.g. values – humbleness, courage, temperance, chastity, etc.) (150 words)
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PART 2: YOUR PAST Indigenous communities throughout the world have survived because of leaders who teach their traditions and culture to the next generation. Elder Legacy Leaders build crossgenerational bridges that re-imagine and advance cultural superlatives – ways of knowing and being that can be meaningfully passed on to future generations. Please give brief answers of no more than 500 words.
Thinking back to the past 15-20 years of the stages of your leadership, share an example of a practice that sustains your personal resilience? (250 words)
Name and briefly describe a cultural metaphor or teaching you have used in your cultural work to inspire those around you in order to actively cultivate resilience within your community? (350 words)
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Do you have special places that strengthen you in your cultural geography that connects across time and space? (Promoting and regenerating relationships to land, sacred sites, nature, language, the dignity of women and girls, and/or cultural expression?) (350 words)
PART 3: YOUR FUTURE The full nine-year circle of the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program will deeply engage North American Indigenous (Canada, United States, Mexico) geographically and culturally diverse Elder Legacy Leaders, co-creators and collaborators upon whom the Program is centered. Opportunities for healing, dreaming and deep connection on personal, collective, national and international levels are necessary to achieve the social transformation we seek.
Reflecting on your deeper purpose at this stage of your life’s work, what draws you to apply to the Spirit Aligned Legacy Leader Fellowship Cohort? How does your purpose align with your values? (350 words)
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Please answer either of this questions: • Please share, in any expressive form, what your legacy means to those who you have mentored - or are currently mentoring - and your desired future. Please include an example of your personal approach to mentorship. (500 words or fewer)
• How have you lived your ancestral teachings over time? What, Why and How are you willing to share your lived experiences, knowledge and wisdom as one of 8 members of the first of a larger group of Elder Indigenous women Legacy Leaders who will be invited in over the next nine years? (500 words or fewer)
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What about the Spirit Aligned Leadership Program most excites you? (350 words)
BY SIGNING HERE YOU ARE STATING YOU MEET ALL MEET ALL ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS:
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