Our program model is guided by a north star of liberatory leadership. As described by the Leadership Learning Community, liberatory leadership is an invitation to leaders to live out the compelling vision of collective liberation through the transformation of ourselves, our communities, and our institutions. Liberatory leadership is rooted in self-love and right-relationship with others and facilitates the power, joy, and thriving of all people.

Strategies for Social Change takes this idea further; liberatory Leadership operationalizes liberatory vision. It draws on numerous personal, organizational, and community practices that invite us to assess, reflect on, unlearn and discard relationships that center power based in supremacy, division and dominance, and invite in models based on equity, community, and self-determination.

Unlike holistic leadership development programs like Rockwood, political and public service leadership programs like Sorensen, or candidate training programs like Meet Our Moment, VAPLP provides training, networks, and resources to drive social movement strategies forward. Through reflection and analysis of the Virginia today and visioning of the Virginia as it should be, participants focus on three core skill-building topics to get there: community organizing, storytelling & narrative, and money & capital. 

Our curriculum centers theory and practice from BIPOC movement leaders and organizations. 

VAPLP prioritizes participants continuous access to a safe, comfortable, and productive environment. An expansive lens of access needs is anything that allows us to show up more fully as ourselves in the space in any given day.

To do that, we have incorporated several ways to increase accessibility, including no-cost attendance, travel stipends, simultaneous Spanish-English language interpretation, all-gender restrooms, mobility access and ADA accessible venues, sensory/quiet rooms, fidget toys, printed participant guides with visual aids, fragrance-free spaces, and more. We aim to ensure accessibility is not a barrier or determining factor for folks to attend.

We don’t assume that we know all access needs or pose this as a comprehensive list of options and needs.

Please reach out to Program Stewards, Nico and Harmony, at vaplp@engageva.org with further questions or accessibility accommodation requests.

Be prepared for an intensive weekend filled with workshops and community-building. Consistent feedback we receive is that each retreat is jam-packed with content and people time. There’s always an ask for more time to spend together and that it’s equally a lot of time spent together. We hold the tension of both, so we ask that you self-regulate and take time & space to rest when you need to. There are 15-minute breaks in between each workshop and no workshops go past dinner in the evenings. You can get a sense of the schedule in the sample schedules above. 

There is no cost to attend the program. We cover food and lodging at the skill-building retreats, and offer stipends for eligible participants to cover the cost of travel and childcare.

VAPLP is open to any Virginia resident who is actively doing social change work. We prioritize BIPOC folks and those with diverse lived experiences. Our program is for both emerging and seasoned leaders. What we primarily look for is a set of characteristics: 

• Embracing Diversity: appreciation for and ability to navigate diversity of different voices, identities, and experiences within and between organizations and communities

• Collective Action: takes action internally and externally to change the conversations, structures, and paradigms that have been engineered to uphold racial capitalism

• Communication + Dialogue: seeks to understand than be understood; leans into generative conflict; open to how different voices can still be harmonious

• Community and Solidarity Building: committed to the wellbeing of others; are able to build authentic, safe, and sustainable relationships

• Historical, Systems, and Structural Analysis: articulates the connections between the structural and the personal, and between policies and personal identities

• Experimentation and Innovation: experiment with new structures, approaches, and resourcing models to create new possibilities; committed to “how we do” as much as “what we do”

• Inner Work and Collective Healing: are curious about personal assumptions, narratives, beliefs, values about self and others; recognition to realize racial justice must first start with healing from effects of that trauma

•  Liberatory Vision + Imagination: invite in ways of being based on equity, community, and self-determination; desire for transformation to discard relationships that center power based in supremacy, division, and dominion

Each pod is multiracial and multigenerational. The demographics typically include folks in age from mid-20s to mid-50s, primarily Black and other folks of the global majority, geographically across Virginia, and primarily women and trans/nonbinary folks. When we select the final participants for the pod, we’re not just considering each individual but we’re looking at the collective pod as a whole.

Characteristics credited to Leadership Learning Community’s “Leadership and Race” 2024 report

Each participant will have their own private room with a full size bed or larger, as well as a private bathroom on-site at the retreats. Participants are expected to stay in these accommodations for the whole weekend unless discussed with the Program Stewards in advanced. Each venue is ADA accessible.

You can view specific venue locations, workshop dates, and other program details here.

The Selections Committee is composed of VAPLP alumni and program staff. You can find the members for the Pod 12 Selections Committee here. This team will be reviewing applications, interviewing candidates, and ultimately determining the participants of that pod.

Each retreat will have a four-person team, three facilitators and one operations staff, with 2 staff members remaining the same throughout the summer. You can view the facilitation team for Pod 12 here.

There are three waivers that you can view here: Participation Agreement, Release and Waiver of Legal Liability, Media Release. 

The Virginia Progressive Leadership Program (VAPLP) is a collective learning experience built on trust, shared growth, and deep engagement. Each participant contributes to the strength of the cohort, and our time together is designed to honor both your leadership and the leadership of those learning alongside you.

Because of this, participants are expected to attend every retreat weekend and every workshop in full, to the best of their ability. This commitment supports not only your own development, but also the relationships, continuity, and collective learning that make the program transformative.

We ask for this level of participation because:

• Our curriculum builds over time. Each session connects to the next, creating a cohesive arc of learning.

• Your presence matters. The program depends on the trust and accountability developed within the cohort, and that can only happen through consistent engagement.

• We honor everyone’s time and effort. VAPLP invests significant resources to make this program accessible and free of cost, and we structure each weekend intentionally to support participants’ growth.

We understand participants are balancing many responsibilities. We ask that you communicate proactively if conflicts arise and approach this commitment with intention and presence.

Because VAPLP invests significant resources to provide a no-cost, accessible program, participants who leave a retreat early, do not attend a retreat or workshop, or withdraw from the program without consulting with the Program Stewards may be responsible for reimbursing associated costs, such as accommodations or travel stipends, when applicable.

You can find a template for a Letter to Your Employer here. Make a copy and download it if you’d like to use it. This can be shared with your employer to make a case for attending the full length of the learning retreats. Upon acceptance, all participants will be required to sign an agreement with their employer to ensure that they will have capacity and approval to attend the learning retreats on-time on Fridays - Sundays. We recommend you starting the conversation with your employer earlier than later. 

Participants are required to travel to the sites on their own. Participants are eligible to receive a stipend based on distance to sites to cover the cost of travel upon acceptance to the program. The travel stipend will be calculated based on each person’s home address and the federal mileage reimbursement rate. For participants without a vehicle, there will be a carpool signup for any travel during the program days itself. Please note that you’d request carpooling in the application.