Living Learning Community for Leadership Development with African Women
The mission of the Living Learning Community for Leadership Development with African Women (LLC) is to promote long-term systemic change in Sub-Saharan Africa by investing in the emotional healing, spiritual development, cognitive/critical thinking skills, grassroots leadership capabilities, and entrepreneurial efforts of African women.
The Living Learning Community for Leadership Development with African Women began in 2017 with a group of African women who come together in a safe place to heal, grow, and develop capacity for engaging in grassroots leadership work for their home contexts. The LLC has since multiplied to groups of women in Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda, and hopefully soon in Burundi.
Mutuality, dialogue, and positive regard are the pillars that structure the collaborative work of the LLC. At any given time, the work of the LLC could look like a Bible study, a business co-op, a support group, a study group, a spiritual retreat, or a community planning meeting.
In Nairobi, students receive scholarships to study in university to prepare to address complex, systemic challenges that marginalized African women face. Specifically, they learn how to initiate and facilitate group processes with marginalized women, often in rural or informal settlement areas.
Scholarship recipients are required to “pay it forward” by replicating the processes that they experienced in the LLC with other women in different settings. They are supported by their own network of graduates of the LLC and by local African advisory boards that provide encouragement and advice.