Cultivating Talent and Catalyzing Change: - An Assessment of Emerging City Champions - Prepared by Sarah Lee

The ECC Studio is also, by a large margin, the single aspect of the program that Champions (from the 2015 through 2019 cohorts) believe to be most responsible for the impact they felt from the program. [...] It was a chance to work in a space that was al- ready meaningful in Gabriela’s life—due to her role at NSNP and because her aunt was one of the women who established the garden—and to “activate it on an artistic level.” The ECC Studio inspired Gabriela to see this work, and her role at Power Street, in a new light. [...] You get the encouragement to go on a little while longer and to fight a little harder and to see it through to the end.” As an investment in him, specifically as a young person, ECC helped Orlando step into his power and use his platform to advance equity in the city he loves. [...] It started to fizzle after the first month.” In fact, the one aspect of the ECC program design about which there was consistent criticism from the Champions has to do with the lack of ongoing support to keep the network engaged and active. [...] The flexibility and scale of the ECC micro-grant was essential: “A very small investment in a project that I could focus on and didn’t have to be housed within my organization—that was the only way that I would have been able to do a project like that and to have so much flexibility with it.” The project’s success—many of the tactics that he implemented are now policy for Lextran—led Richard to im.