Community Leadership Fellowship (CLF)

Theme: Being in our Bodies as a Form of Healing

Thank you for your interest in the CLF program. We will begin accepting applications for the 2023-2024 application cycle in the spring. Please fill out our interest form here to be contacted when the application cycle begins and feel free to reach out to jnovy@challiance.org with any questions.

Practices that involve kind awareness and connection to the body are an important part of healing justice and mindfulness and compassion, especially in the context of trauma, isolation, illness, and difficult emotions, and for communities living with communal and intergenerational trauma. In the wake of the COVID and racial injustice pandemics, our Community Leadership Fellowship aims to support community projects, innovation, and community leadership in diverse forms in our local region. This 2022 - 2023 year, CMC will intentionally support projects that inquire into, offer, or design community spaces and/or practices that offer the community an opportunity for mindful and compassionate connection with the body.  CMC is a state-of-the-art research, clinical, community programs and training center affiliated with Harvard Medical School that is committed to increasing our communities’ well-being with a focus on inclusivity, accessibility, and diversity.  CMC can offer the fellow an immersive experience in an academic and community mindfulness and compassion training environment. 

The Community Leadership Fellowship is meant to complement and/or extend what the applicant may already be doing or is committed to exploring (community work, academics, paid work, etc).  The Fellowship consists of a mindfulness and compassion training element, and a project element.  

The training element consists of:

• Encouragement, journaling prompts, and community support for establishing/deepening your own daily embodiment practice (20min/day)

• Free participation in one CMC 8-week course (24h)

• Participate in CMC’s new Contemplative Embodiment program (TBD)

• Attendance at CMC Grand Rounds (1h biweekly)

• Discounted participation in most CMC events, programs and trainings for the year 

The fellowship provides training and mentorship for fellows to discover, plan, implement and/or evaluate a project of their choice.  Fellows may work on a variety of projects. These projects can be wide in scope, but should provide some opportunity for members of the community to have exposure to the experience of mindfulness, compassion, and embodiment.  We encourage applicants to propose projects whose progress can be measurable within a year’s time frame, and where the applicant would feel comfortable presenting the process and results to CMC and their own community at the end of the year.  For example, a project that adapts a certain movement form for a specific community (e.g., adaptation process and pilot of tai chi for those with physical differences, embodied art-viewing using outdoor murals for queer/trans youth who have experienced trauma), or a project that connects members of a community to existing online or in-person practice spaces (yoga for BIPOC parents with childcare option).  

The fellowship is an opportunity to develop preliminary research or program planning/development insights for future grants (academic, community, arts, etc.) and priority will be given to projects that have scope for continuation past the fellowship year.  Fellows will work with mentors to more fully develop milestones and a plan for continuation.  We welcome applications from any background or individuals associated with a community organization in the Boston metropolitan area.

The project element consists of:

• CMC grant support for community project expenses (up to $1,000)

• Monthly online mentorship from CMC mentor for project and next steps* 

• Monthly online group peer meeting with other fellows to build supportive community*

• Connection to internationally renown CMC faculty who are content-area experts

• Presentation of project process and results at the end of the year

• One fellow will be given the opportunity to serve on the selection committee for the next fellowship cohort
  
  *Applicants will be offered $25 per meeting for attendance at each of these meetings.

  
  

Applications will be accepted until January 31, 2022, and applicants notified by February 21, 2022.

We will select 2-3 fellows for the 2022-2023 cohort.

The fellowship will begin on April 4, 2022. 

If you have any questions, please contact cmc@challiance.org.

Current Community Leadership Fellows

Former Community Leadership Fellows