LEAP 2025 Cohort Applications are open now! 

In 2024, with the support of the Amplify Her Foundation grant, PowHer® New York recruited and began to train our first LEAP (Leaders for Equity, Advocacy and Progress) Initiative cohort. 

To create enduring change, the inaugural LEAP Initiative program aims to engage, educate and inspire diverse female leaders to innovate, activate, and advocate in our movement. It is critical to build a pipeline of leaders from diverse backgrounds who are prepared to step up into leadership roles, whether they be in public roles, working in organizations whose purpose is to create policy change, or community organizing as activists and advocates for specific issues.

The LEAP program brings organizers and practitioners into community with program participants, allowing for learning, networking, and collective action. We center the voices of women of color as guest speakers and have a diverse inaugural cohort. 

The LEAP Initiative Program is structured around skill-building, networking, and hands-on advocacy experience. In each session, members of the LEAP cohort:

• Learn skills and how to influence policy from the life experience of real policy leaders and mentors
• Network with professional advocates and policy leaders, and other participants to build mutual support and community
• Advocate on economic justice and issues of interest to the participants in collaboration with the PowHer®NY Network.

The inaugural cohort of  young women in the early stages of their advocacy careers successfully completed the first program in November 2024, and helped develop new ideas for the next cohort, which will begin in January 2025.

Session 1: Introductions & Objectives April 30th

In Session 1, the LEAP cohort met for the first time, in person. The cohort explored their relationships to community building, and the connection among positionality/identity, structural oppression and advocacy.

Session 2:  Advocacy for Policy and Social Change May 21st

In Session 2, the LEAP cohort discussed the fundamental framework of advocacy and its influence on socio-political policy. Na’ilah Amaru, an accomplished Advocacy & Policy Strategist, introduced the case study, “Let NY Vote”, a nonpartisan, statewide coalition working to make voting more accessible, secure, & equitable for New York Voters

Advocacy in Action Speaker: Na’ilah Amaru, Let NY Vote

Session 3:  Communications to Create Impact June 11th

Session 3 featured communications experts Deanne Braveman and Sasha Ahuja, who helped inform the cohort on how to create effective messaging to various target audiences, and assess different communication strategies and tactics to move the target audience to action.

Advocacy in Action Speakers:

Deanne Braveman, Campaign & Public Strategist, Mercury LLC

Sasha Ahuja, Campaign Director, New Yorkers for Equal Rights/Yes on Prop 1 NY

Session 4: Community Engagement and Activation July 16th

For Session 4, the LEAP cohort explored base building and different tools/methods of activating for advocacy. Environmental Justice Advocate and Energy & Decarbonization Strategist Shii-Anna Mudie presented the case study of Brownsville Green Justice, a grassroots community led collective of residents in East Brooklyn, calling for remedial action in response to the expansion of fracked gas infrastructure in Black, Brown and poor communities.

Advocacy in Action Speaker: Shii-Anna Mudie, Brownsville Green Justice

LEAP Summer Social August 6th

During a summer break in the program, LEAP cohort members came together with advocates of the PowHer Network and Board, for refreshments and networking.

Session 5:  Flip the Switch, PowHer® the Vote September 10th

Session 5 of the LEAP program focused on PowHerNY’s PowHer The Vote program, a nonpartisan election action series. The cohort had the opportunity to strategize how they could increase civic engagement in their communities, and how they could support the passage of the New York Equal Rights Amendment (Prop 1).

Advocacy in Action Speakers:

Beverly Neufeld, President & Founder, PowHer® New York

Abigail Grimshaw, Online Manager, PowHer® New York

Session 6:  Relationship Building in NYC, Albany, and the Federal Level October 8th

In the final program session, the LEAP Cohort learned about advocacy through building relationships with elected officials and staff, as well as navigating the internal structures of power in the City and State legislature.

Advocacy in Action Speakers:

Madhuri Shukla, Advocacy Consultant & former NYC Council Legislative Director

Elsa Wiesinger, Program Associate, PowHer® New York

LEAP Closing Ceremony November 19th

The 2024 LEAP cohort came together for a closing ceremony, celebrating the skills and connections they built over the 6 month program.