Mon, 06 Apr 2026 11:08:44 -0700WeeblySat, 14 Jun 2014 01:25:15 GMThttps://www.ethicalleadership.org/cultivating-trust-within-a-multi-service-community-based-organization-mi-casa-resource-center-denver-colorado/cultivating-trust-within-a-multi-service-community-based-organization-mi-casa-resource-center-denver-coloradoCollective Leadership Principle Learned: How to use youth and adult partnerships to cultivate trust and align the values within a multi-service, community-based organization with the community they serve.

Outcome: Engaged youth and adults in partnership to support a public middle school serving as a community center in a predominantly Latino community.

Collective Leadership Principle Learned: How to use youth and adult partnerships to cultivate trust and align the values within a multi-service, community-based organization with the community they serve.

Mi Casa was founded in 1976 by eight mothers who understood that education and employment were vital for women to achieve personal and economic success. For 34 years, Mi Casa has been committed to its mission of advancing economic success and helping Latino and low-income families trade poverty for lasting economic stability. Mi Casa’s overarching goal is to increase the employability, education, knowledge and life skills of the individuals they serve. The priority is to provide highly relevant and effective programs in career, business and youth and family development as well as supportive services that address each individual’s unique challenges.

How did Mi Casa use youth and adult partnerships to benefit their community?
Mi Casa has worked to make connections between personal identify, culture and community, paired with empowering youth to take a leadership role in finding solutions to local problems. Mi Casa created supportive relationships between the Kellogg Leadership for Community Change Fellowship (a grant funded leadership program) and Lake Middle School. Building on relationships built by other Mi Casa programs, the Fellowship modeled youth and adult partnerships to work with the school. This included youth surveying youth to identify needs, introducing the use of circle process as a way to have all voices be heard and working to connect the school and community through gardens, murals and increasing safety around the school. For example, the Fellowship negotiated with an adult bookstore on the path to school to put materials inappropriate for children out of the public eye.

As they learned lessons they have shared them through art, such as creating a “youth voice” rap, and a play based on interviews with the Fellows. They also offer workshops to teach others how to develop collective leadership and youth and adult partnerships. The Seed Zine puts their workshop material into an easily accessible form.

Collective Leadership Capacity:
As the youth and adults focused on working with Lake Middle School (http://www.micasadenver.org/), there were a number of issues that surfaced. Even though there were many Latino students, the connection between the school and the community was not always strong. By modeling what they were learning through KLCC, the Fellowship helped Lake Middle School create better connections with the families of their students and the community around the school.

Inside Mi Casa, the learning led to adding youth to the Board, creating a more collective leadership team including younger staff, and a re-examination of their name and mission. During the time of the KLCC process, the organization engaged in a major strategic planning process (see KLCC Bridge article below) using some of the collective leadership principles. This helped them align the values among the many stakeholders within the organization and also with the larger community they serve.
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