A cohort of high-impact leaders from across the Merrimack Valley has been selected to participate in a new program designed to help build a stronger, more connected region ready to tackle the area’s most pressing challenges.
The new Echo Fellowship is run by LEADS – a nonprofit focused on leadership development, particularly in Gateway Cities – in partnership with Essex County Community Foundation (ECCF). Additional support for Echo comes from other regional partners, including the Greater Lowell Community Foundation.
Echo is similar to the traditional 10-month LEADS Fellowship, first offered in the Merrimack Valley five years ago. It marries the academic rigor of Harvard Business School case studies with community context, and is an investment in senior business, nonprofit and public sector leaders.
What is different about Echo is that the program has been condensed into a shorter period of time: five months versus 10. And Echo participants (see the full list here) will be more fully integrated into the existing LEADS network, which is comprised of approximately 250 leaders from the Merrimack Valley, North Shore and South Coast that have already completed the traditional Fellowship.
“The goal here is to expand opportunities to foster lasting impact through the collaborative efforts of trusted local leaders,” said Derek Mitchell, co-founder and president of LEADS. “These leaders are uniquely qualified to identify deeply rooted challenges, engage community members and build community-owned solutions.”
The new Echo cohort includes participants from across multiple communities (anchored in the Gateway Cities of Lowell, Lawrence, Haverhill and Methuen) and sectors (27% public; 35% nonprofit; 10% philanthropy and 27% from the for-profit sector); organizational size and demographics. The idea is that the region’s stickiest issues can only be addressed by an approach that brings together diverse stakeholders. Developing trusted working relationships that span organizations, communities, sectors and lived experience is foundational to effectively build collaborative strategies.
“The expansion of this human infrastructure is critical to ECCF, as our work relies upon community leaders to drive collective action across our region,” said Stratton Lloyd, president and CEO of ECCF, which has been a partner of LEADS since its inception in 2018 in the city of Lawrence. “LEADS has served as a force multiplier, and we’re thrilled to partner with them on this evolution of an incredibly successful program. Together, we’re building something special.”
ECCF was pivotal in LEADS’ expansion across the Merrimack Valley and, ultimately, into the North Shore. The development of the Echo concept was a joint effort to continue to invest in the collaborative leadership infrastructure across the region.
Community foundations – which by design leverage the power of collective action to solve local challenges – are ideal partners in this work. Greater Lowell Community Foundation’s support for the new LEADS Echo program is proof that these organizations have a critical role to play in building and strengthening the human infrastructure required to innovate systemic solutions.
“By supporting programs like LEADS Echo, we’re investing in the trusted relationships and shared understanding that communities need to tackle their most pressing challenges together,” said Greater Lowell Community Foundation President & CEO Jay Linnehan. “This is the work of building a stronger Merrimack Valley.”
Based on the success of this year’s Echo programming in the Merrimack Valley, ECCF and LEADS will partner to offer a similar Echo program on the North Shore in coming years. Concurrently, LEADS has another cohort running on the South Coast and has plans to offer back-to-back Fellowships in the Pioneer Valley starting next year.
