Deadline: 27-May-21
Applications are now open for the United Kingdom Fellowship.
Each year, the Acumen UK Fellowship selects ~20 Fellows from across sector, place and background who are redefining success in the United Kingdom – and equips them with the practices and community needed to deepen and sustain their impact.
The Fellowship begins with a year-long fully-funded leadership programme, where Fellows remain in their role while taking part in a series of immersive residentials, virtual workshops and group practice. This is where practical skills meet moral imagination – and the programme is designed to increase a Fellow’s capacity to bridge their divides and take on long standing problems of injustice.
After the first year, Fellows become part of Acumen’s global community of social innovators – committed to lifelong learning, collaboration and accompaniment as they build a world based on dignity.
Pillars
- Amplify new voices: Support diverse role models who have a deep understanding of their problems.
- Tackle complex challenges: Build a community that drives change across sectors, disciplines and places.
- Bridge their divides: Develop leaders with the capacity to work across lines of difference and build trust.
What makes a fellow?
Their fellows are extraordinary leaders who dare to embrace the difficult journey of social change. Here’s what they want from you—and what you can expect from your cohort.
- Entrepreneurs: Leaders of both for-profit and nonprofit organizations providing critical goods or services to the underserved.
- Intrapreneurs: Builders from any sector tackling poverty and injustice from within by shifting the institutional culture—and building new collaborations.
- Organizational Builders: Leaders (other than the Founder or CEO) supporting the growth of institutions combating poverty and injustice.
- Public Sector Leader: Leveraging the government to create policy changes, partnerships or adoption of new models to tackle poverty.
What you will practice?
Over the Fellowship year you will build the tools and mindset to:
- Lead diverse stakeholders through recurring and complex challenges
- Articulate a vision that speaks across lines of difference & moves others into action
- Understand larger, systemic problems and design more effective interventions
- Navigate uncertainty and embrace the meaningful process of creating change
- Cultivate a deeper understanding of yourself and your work in a broader context
Fellows are typically one of the following Paths:
- Social Entrepreneur: Leading organisations that develop market-based solutions to tackle social issues
- Charity Champion: Building voluntary organisations that provide support and opportunity to those most in need
- Corporate Changemaker: Shifting culture and pioneering inclusive business from within larger corporations
- Public Sector Leader: Reimagining public policy and leveraging the government machinery to drive change
- Movement Builder: Mobilising communities to create collective action around unseen, unheard or marginalised causes
Eligibility Criteria
- They are looking for Fellows who have demonstrated a deep commitment to tackling inequality, injustice and divides within their communities – this includes how they treat the vulnerable, the poor and the planet to create a society that works for all. This piece shares more of Acumen’s thinking on changing the narrative around poverty. Although not a requirement, Fellows typically have at least four years of experience driving their current social change initiative and can demonstrate through learned or lived experiences their understanding of the system they seek to change.
- They are looking for individuals who currently have an influence role in an organization, initiative or movement committed to fighting poverty or injustice in the United Kingdom. If your work is also international, they will be evaluating your application on your UK impact.
For more information, visit https://acumenacademy.org/fellowship/uk