Leadership Program Empowers Black, Indigenous and Racialized Women

Photo contributed      Aina-Nia Ayo'dele, CEO of Aina-Nia Learning Journey Inc.

Sacred Leader Training (SLT+), a leadership program that has empowered Black, Indigenous and racialized women, is about to enter its fourteenth year in January 2024 and is inviting enterprising women to come along on the journey. 

 

This unique experience for women, who are leading in various aspects of their lives, invites those ready for a radical shift in life transformation to learn and grow with like-minded women leaders in a flourishing sacred community. “The process is like the meeting of yourself,” says City of Toronto Business Services Manager, Tobie Mathew. “All of the sisters [in SLT+] tell you who you are.” 

    

“I had a very clear understanding that I needed an African-centred leadership process at the time,” says artist and curator, Chiedza Pasipanodya, who had questions about their identity and needed the support found in the program created by Aina-Nia Ayo’dele, a transformative leader. 

 

The process is intentional about ensuring women become clear on their life visions and live fully into their purpose. The curriculum is grounded in indigenous African wisdom practices, contemporary leadership and universal spiritual principles. 

 

The women who engage in the Sacred Leader Training process are usually Black, Indigenous and racialized women in mid-management to senior leadership who are leading organizations, boards, and often their own businesses.  

 

For social worker and assistant professor, Verlia Stephens, SLT+ helped her to challenge the imposter syndrome that she experienced in her work life. “This process made me confront... making myself really small and why I am doing that,” said Stephens who is among the 50 women who have completed the program. 

 

Those selected in the process, must be willing to commit to do the work that cultivates self-joy; be ready to journey alongside Ayo’dele’s tutelage and support to release shame, guilt, imbalance, overwhelm and self-sacrifice; and be able to take responsibility to cultivate a life on purpose. 

 

To achieve this, they will explore topics such as life vision manifestation, balance and boundaries, self-acceptance, forgiveness, restoration and preservation, ancient healing rituals, spiritual activism, African spiritual feminism and sexual power, and dream interpretation. 

 

Ayo’dele, a leadership coach, author, ancient wisdom teacher and spiritual liberation activist, is the CEO of Aina-Nia Learning Journey Inc. on a mission to influence institutions and individuals to create bold and meaningful change through a decolonized approach to leadership as a path to equity, inclusion, reparation, and reconciliation and most importantly, self-love.  

 

SLT+2024 starts on January 14, and in-person group learning circles will be held bi-weekly during the ten months. The training includes a mid-way overnight retreat in Ontario, Canada and an international culmination retreat for five days on a land where indigenous African ways are still practiced. 

 

By the end of the process, leaders will learn to release the things that are blocking or hindering them from living purposefully and taken the radical steps to advance. Certified Sacred Leaders will have manifested their primary purpose of being on this planet at this time, along with the mastery of balance, boundaries and self-love.  

 

Women who are called to embark on this journey have until December 23, 2023, to submit applications to aina-nia.com/slt-2024 and, while there they can book a conversation for consideration.