Absolutely. Thank you.
We have a leadership institute specifically for women. It's been piloted over three years. Twenty-five women each year go to the Coady International Institute and do a model that is very focused on executive leadership. It is directed at supporting their leadership in not-for-profits. The reason we created it was that the community economic development groups encouraged us to try to plug a gap in training and expertise in women's leadership in not-for-profits. As we know, succession planning is not happening in not-for-profits. There 's a big turnover in staff at the higher levels.
That has shown us the importance of mentorship and coaching. They have a program at the beginning and at the end, and then during the year they run a leadership project themselves in their community. They have a mentor who offers them not only the asset-building advice that we see in the sustainable livelihoods projects but also real-time industry advice, which is really important to them. Those mentors are key to that program.
Right now we run it for mostly not-for-profits, but we find that women in those programs report to us such things as, “I now feel like I could present myself for political office on the town council”, or “I feel I could present myself for a board position at the local shelter.” They're seeing the assets growing in all areas, not just in their professional life.