The Ko'ach Fellowship—a program of Joyous Justice’s nonprofit arm, The Joyous Justice Collective—is an elite 8-month transformational leadership program for highly-accomplished Jewish leaders of Color who are eager to further sharpen and amplify their vision, well-being, and leadership.
In Hebrew, Ko’ach means “strength” and "power." The Ko’ach Fellowship is an intersectional and liberation focused leadership development program, providing group coaching by and for accomplished Jewish leaders of Color.
This fellowship is made possible with the generous financial support of Rise Up and a private donor.
Participating leaders commit to engaging open-heartedly with the core tenets of the Ko’ach Fellowship and of powerful JOC leadership:
THE OPPORTUNITY
Participate in a ground-breaking collective mastermind wholly shaped by us and our collective brilliance
Become more grounded and resourced in your leadership, enabling you to live into the visions of the life you want to build
Cultivate powerful and courageous leadership through spiritually nourishing and intellectually engaging learning and dialogue
Form whole-hearted relationships and community with other JOCs from around the United States, aligning with our wellness, and nourishing our radical imaginations
“Through April’s coaching I was able to manifest a large step up in my career and given countless tools to succeed once I got there. She was both able to meet me where I was and push me to become more confident in advocating for myself and other people of color on staff. April is a lighthouse that guided me through the occasionally rough waters of being a Jew of Color navigating mostly white professional spaces.”
“Our time together left me feeling more able to lean into an abundance mindset, hope and joy. I came away from the retreat feeling really celebrated for who I am and happy with where I am at in my life, while also excited to even further craft the life I want and the just world I want to live in. I am excited to dream BIG, which isn't always easy for me, and I also feel already more able to do so because of April's approach and fierce belief in me. The retreat felt welcoming and connected, even while taking place over Zoom. This retreat was powerful and liberatory in its structure.
I came away from our retreat fulling feeling affirmed in my intuition that April is a wonderful guide/mentor/person/woman/collaborator to have in my life as her approach to both social and racial justice work and LIFE feels aligned with my own, but her approach seems more honed, studied, explored. and I know that she holds a lot of wisdom that I look forward to learning from to bring about positive change both personally and professionally.” — Kiyomi Gelber (she/her/hers), Assistant Director at Camp Tawonga
“Though you may find, from time to time, complication… Just move on up toward your destination!” -Curtis Mayfield
It’s time to invest more fully and lovingly in the beauty and visionary nature of your dreams.
Together, let’s heal from and circumvent hurdles and challenges impeding our leadership and our capacity to soar to the heights we know in, our kishkes, we can.
It’s quite possible you have already exceeded most expectations others have placed on you (thanks, racism and other -isms…), but that doesn’t mean you’re done. Likely, deep down, you know you’re just getting started.
Ko’ach is here to affirm your capacity to achieve feats and accomplish internal/spiritual goals that often exist beyond the visionary limits of many of the institutions, communities, and leaders you regularly encounter.
Or, you might have a sublimely simple dream or desire for greater simplicity, peace, and mastery of your current life and leadership.
I, April Baskin, want to have your back 110%, in addition to your fellow cohort members. To paraphrase Nas, “Been like 20 years since a sister first signed. Now I’m a free agent and I’m thinking it’s time to build my very Ko’ach Fellowship. Because I can no longer accept seeing brilliant Jewish leaders of color being tokenized by some institutions. It hurts to see these dysfunctional dynamics temporarily distract or dim our light. And I love to give my passion and years of experience to this fight. […] Either way, our change will come like Sam Cooke.”