The People First Community is a cross-sectoral and globally diverse group of practitioners, academics, and public and private sector actors with a shared belief in the importance of prioritizing investing in collective leadership development as a path for sustainable development.
Stakeholders throughout whole ecosystems exercising agency and leadership
Who are locally rooted, diverse, and inclusive, especially people who have experienced the inequities being addressed
Who have have shared purpose reflecting commitment to justice and sustainable development
Who are engaged in community and have the networks and relationships to collaborate and learn together
Our purpose is to advance practice, research, and investment in cultivating collective leadership for sustainable development.
Collective leadership development becomes the primary focus to achieve sustainable development, so that humans, everywhere, are equipped to exert agency and leadership towards system change.
Put love for people and the planet at the center
Believe in the human potential to change the world
See abundance in different ways of being and doing
We need to redefine leadership as collective action. When hundreds of people come together, identify common solutions, identify the assets that help us reach that goal, and then hold each other mutually accountable, that's how change occurs and that’s how change is truly sustainable
Foster deep learning on how to develop collective leadership among practitioners involved in this space
Advance research that investigates “how” to cultivate and build leadership capacity as a lever for system change
Strengthen the case and advance storytelling about how collective leadership development strengthens systems for justice, equity, and sustainability
Unlock and redirect an increased percentage of philanthropic investments in people(vs. things) and build out the case for government and multilateral investment
