We We Need Now: Lessons Learned from the 2025 Partners in Prevention Conference

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I had the pleasure and privilege of meeting coalition leaders from across Tennessee on Monday and Tuesday this week, as folks gathered for the 2025 Partners in Prevention (PiP) Conference. Convened by the Tennessee Certification Board and CHASCo, PiP offers preventionists across Tennessee the opportunity to consistently expand their knowledge, skills, and abilities. Amazing! What I've been learning, however, is that there are fundamental values and attributes that our coalition directors, nonprofit and network leadership need in order to lead well. Well, in this context, means leading effectively, aligned with the values and principles of prevention, and toward transformation of whole communities.

As a newer business, I don't have much to offer in terms of "swag", plus I want to move away from plastic gizmos and toward good information and insightful experiences. So, I set up my table with some branded materials about my offerings, but I focused my engagement with conference-goers around a bit of participatory research. I asked the question- What skills, values, attributes, or practices are needed for effective (and transformative!) coalition leadership?

Values: Trustworthiness, roots or investment in the community

If I've said it once, I'll say it again- Change moves at the speed of trust. I credit that statement to john a. powell, current Director at the Othering & Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley. Without trust, we cannot do the critical collaborative work well. Trust is not hard and fast; it is a choice. But to be trustworthy? Cultivate our trustworthiness requires that we trust our people, show up for one another, and follow through. It takes time, so we must be patient and embrace moving at a generational pace. We acknowledge our limitations and allow our humanity to exist. It's possible we have to experience conflict and how we hold each other through that to claim trust. In this way, conflict is an essential activity to trust building.

Attributes: Everybody helping everybody, integrity, flexibility, authenticity, a servant's heart

Heart-based work or habits of the heart must be unearthed and conveyed for our leadership to be transformative. Our physical heart sits on the anahata chakra (or heart chakra), which is our energetic heart. Having a servant's heart, or possessing an attribute of humility, is critical for coalitions to work. We get into the work of building healthy and healing community because our hearts are calling us to do it. And our energetic hearts are the thread that weaves us into relationship with our ancestors. We can do the work that our ancestors couldn't or wouldn't. We are in service to people and place, across timelines.

Skills: Accountability, authentic relationships

As I was cobbling together Building Inclusive Spaces, I considered how to step into the conversation about skill-building around accountability. It is not a super comfortable topic, especially for folks in positions of traditionally dominant leadership. I was taught to feel shame around the power imbalances that I benefit from. I still struggle with it. Enter in Solidarity Economy Principles and the specific practices and principles around collective care, relationships, and accountability. Harm is harm and needs to be named, and we can intentionally build our skills for being accountable and create practices to transform conflict.

Practices: Form committees, delegate! distributed leadership, partnership, collaboration, reassess products/images/messages and rebrand, come together in-person for folks to share state-wide and not just regionally

When I was working with a group of coalition leaders in Alaska, they said the same thing- "We need more of us." Distributed leadership may be what you need to work toward. It's not as easy as saying on a Tuesday- we're moving to a more distributed model of getting things done tomorrow. It takes addressing the pre-conditions for how to distribute leadership across a network or coalition. There's planning, conversation, decision-making and maybe some conflict to move through in order to get to a place where a distributed model of leadership can work well. It's antithetical to the fiercely individualistic way of working we've been taught to. It means breaking down siloes and working differently across organizations. It means coming together around a shared vision that takes precedent over personal agendas. It means knowing your personal boundaries.

I've tried to get at the pre-conditions, planning and communicating shared decisions in my Distributed Leadership Planning Canvas*. Take it, use it. May it serve you and your coalition well. And, if you get to a stuck spot or want facilitated guidance, reach out. I'd love to help your network or coalition.

*I am asking to exchange your email contact with me for the planning canvas. If that's a major turn-off or you don't consent to that, reach out to me at jesslimbird@gmail.com, and I'll share it with you directly. \

**This article was initially published on LinkedIn. ​