We are not waiting for permission
By : Ramiel Martinez | Leadership Academy Coordinator
When you imagine leadership, what do you see? What type of person or people manifests in your mind? How would you feel around this person or these people?
The answers to these questions can tell us a lot about our own relationship with leadership. Maybe you imagine the oppressive figure that casts itself over you, clouding you and others in its endless shadow - or possibly, you imagine a figure of refuge and light, of one or more people who hold you together as you transform into new ways of being.
We live in a time where our highest forms of leadership seek to erase the most vulnerable members of our community. To these leaders, marginalized people’s existence jeopardizes their own selfish endeavors to hoard power. It is no surprise to us that oftentimes, we see the oppressive figure behind our eyes when asked to imagine “leadership.”
As the child of immigrants, I felt myself exempt from this idea of “power” or “leadership.” After immigrating from El Salvador in the late 1980’s, my parents were driven by survival, not empowerment. My mother became a housekeeper shortly after arriving, and I can recall all the times that I cleaned a house worth thousands or millions of dollars. This contrast in our lives - of one of survival versus that of comfort - convinced me that our only way of being was hidden in the shadows. It felt like we had been pushed out of the margins and forced to fade into the background. I’ve come to learn that this feeling doesn’t just belong to me - but to hundreds of others who feel confined by their finances, citizenship status, race, sexual orientation, and more.
Over the years, I’ve slowly started to investigate these feelings I’ve held on to. As I started to meet others - who’ve struggled and yet continue to resist - I developed deep and authentic relationships with them. It wasn’t until one of them said something to me that my perspective shifted;
“Advocating, resourcing, and sharing power is all about imagination. I want to support you because I have imagined all the possibilities of your future, and I hope you know that I continue to imagine your greatness - even when you don’t see it.’”
I realized then that we are ALL called to transform our relationship to power and leadership. If I can imagine my greatness, then I can imagine yours and our communities greatness. We start to create a web - one that allows us to imagine what we can ALL possibly become.
At the Leadership Academy, we begin this transformation by centering the idea of “inherent power.” Inherent is defined as “something permanent, essential, or a characteristic attribute.” Inherent power is a permanent part of who we are. Think back to all those that came before you - their struggles, their resistance, and their power is part of the reason you and I are here today. If you imagine it like a string, inherent power is what connects us to the past (our ancestors) and to the future (our descendants).
But our past, present, and future selves ask us to imagine what our leadership can become. As another piece at the core of the Leadership Academy, imagination grounds us when we confront those that wish to chain us. When we align ourselves and collectively imagine what we can become, we begin imagining a bridge between vision and reality. Our imagination becomes our compass, and if it is to redefine leadership, we can lead each other to a reality in which leadership is;
Shared across community
Liberates us collectively
Transformative and accountable
With the help of neighbors across Southside, we’ve begun our transformation to redefining leadership through the Leadership Academy. Consisting of Black and Latine neighbors, the bicultural and bilingual space has introduced imagination since its launch.
After an extensive listening stage in 2022, we launched the design team in 2024 in response to their desire to act - while also feeling limited in their ability, experience, or confidence to lead. We began to work with neighbors and collaborate on developing the topics and issue areas of the Leadership Academy. After months of planning, the Leadership Academy launched in February of 2025 with a plan of 6 sessions over the span of 4 months, and 2 cohorts per year. The finalized topics included;
Community organizing for affordable housing
Understanding Richmond government to reduce youth gun violence
Mapping power within our community to advocate for healthcare
These topics cover the current needs that neighbors in Southside seek to address, while also providing the practical skills identified by them to do so. It started in a small room, where neighbors dared to not just dream - but to build. Together, they created a foundation for leadership rooted in shared power, imagination, and love for their community.
Our first cohort in February consisted of over 15 neighbors, each of different origins, languages, and experiences. Despite the differences, the cohort nurtured each other’s strengths and tended to their areas of growth. We learned of each other through our stories, our plight, and our hopes for a better future.
Over 15 neighbors graduated from the first cohort of the Leadership Academy, with several shifting over to our working groups permanently.
For our second cohort, we’ve engaged another 15 neighbors to join us over the next 4 months.
This space challenges us to reimagine leadership not as it has been, but as it should be: shared, liberatory, and rooted in community. And at the heart of that transformation is our final core value - action. Action is what turns vision into reality. Without it, leadership remains a concept - disconnected from the material conditions of our lives. It is through action that we move from imagining change to building it, brick by brick, neighbor by neighbor. For communities that have long been marginalized, action becomes a declaration: we are not waiting for permission to lead - we are leading now.
As the Leadership Academy Coordinator, it has been both an honor and a dream to be in relationship with our neighbors - to learn from them, grow alongside them, and witness the power that lives in each of us. Together, we are both the seeds of the future we envision and the first signs of the harvest that transformation makes possible. The Leadership Academy is a living space where the imagination and inherent power of Southside are nurtured. It is here, in community, that we cultivate the courage to act together.
