The purpose of this paper is to present the development and evaluation of Huespring, an LGBTQ+ leadership development program.
We describe the development of Huespring, including the value-base and programmatic elements of the intervention, and the evaluation of three pilot cohorts. Implementation evaluation included participant demographics, curriculum fidelity, dosage and reach. Outcome evaluation assessed participants' perceived personal and professional growth, leadership skills, self-efficacy and satisfaction with the overall program.
Participant feedback indicated significant personal and professional growth via Huespring. When asked if participants had a better understanding of their role in leadership, the most common responses were Agree (47%) and Strongly Agree (38.7%). Participants also Strongly Agreed (65.6%) they had an increased comprehension of the importance of inclusive leadership.
Huespring is a promising intervention to increase LGBTQIA+ community capacity, power building and resiliency through leadership development programming. The Huespring approach and model can be adapted to other local contexts to meet local LGBTQIA+ needs.
Huespring is a unique leadership development program created by and for LGBTQIA+ identifying individuals. It was developed as a direct response to combat hostile conditions among the LGBTQIA+ communities in the Midlands. We created Huespring to promote community capacity and power building among LGBTQIA+ professionals.
