To bring a change in the lives of women with disabilities and to invest intensively in their progress and growth, Rising Flame launched “I Can Lead”- a national leadership program for women and girls with disabilities. because we want to be self advocates and lead from the front!
What is ‘I Can Lead’?
Rising Flame launching “I Can Lead” a national Leadership program for women with disabilities, the first of its kind in India. This leadership course is an intensive individualised training for women with disabilities to address their specific ambition, their specific need, their specific skill gap. The aim is to train them in a combination of some theoretical learning and more practical approaches to find solutions for them to address key problems and barriers in their environment and lives.
This program will have 2 components – vertical mentoring and horizontal support.
- The vertical mentoring will be provided as one on one mentoring by women with disabilities who are leaders in their field in the country. Of course this stems from our commitment of nothing about us without us and who better to provide mentoring support than leaders who have lived a life with a disability and moved ahead successfully.
- The horizontal support will be provided by the Rising Flame team. Both these interventions will be structured and in a pre-decided form.The vertical mentoring is a continuous process and will aim at progress and growth of the individual.
The women with disabilities and their mentors will present their stories at the end of the project as narrative stories of change at a closing convening organised for the group.
What will the mentees (women with disabilities) gain from the program?
The program aims at personal and professional growth of the mentees through various modules and ways. At the same time it aims at providing specific and individual guidance and support for growth.
- an opportunity to have one on one mentoring from leaders of their fields
- peer learning and support
- building, articulating and prioritising goals
- building a solution oriented approach
- understanding self and building self confidence
- overcoming professional barriers for growth
- becoming leaders and forerunners of the I can Lead alumni network
Who is the program for?
Women across disabilities (as defined by the RPD Act 2016) between the ages of 20 and 35 living in India. They should have knowledge either of English or Hindi or sign language to be a part of this program. They should be ready to start the course by end of April.
The batch size will be 5 for this year and from coming years it will run at the full capacity of ten.
What is the selection process?
Organisations (NGOs, DPOs, CSOs, disability or relevant networks and collectives) are welcome to nominate a woman with a disability who fulfils the criteria and who they see as the best fit for a year long engagement as described above.
They will have to fill the nomination form with more information of the mentee/ nominee. From the nominations , the shortlisted candidates will be contacted for an electronic interview (telephonic, skype etc) and the final batch will be announced.
Download
I can Lead – Application