Mentorship, executive coaching, business trainings, retreats, funding grants — these are all tools that can take leaders to the next level. But for women, particularly Black women, or those doing grassroots work, these opportunities often sit out of reach.
Our partnership with Sage D Collective and their Legacy Leaders program helps bridge that gap, bringing grassroots leaders together across sectors and offering them not only a women’s leadership coaching program, but a true community.
Women bear a disproportionate share of the challenges faced across our women. Last year, more than threequarters of all requests to our 211 Contact Center came from women. Yet time and time again, women are the ones giving birth to ideas and leading movements for change.
“I believe investing in women’s leadership and community spaces is one of the most powerful ways we can shape a better future,” said Ebony Johnson, Senior Director of Brighter Futures at United Way of Greater Atlanta, and the leader of our women’s leadership coaching partnership with Sage D Collective.
“When women are supported, trusted, and given space to lead, they don’t just transform their own lives—they strengthen families, cultivate resilience, and reimagine what’s possible for communities.”
For two of the cohort’s up-and-coming leaders, the support from our partnership has made it possible to create cultural spaces in Atlanta that add to the fabric of our city.
Two leaders preserving culture, growing community
Every Sunday at 6:30 a.m., you can find Jennifer Thompson greeting farmers and setting up booths in a lot near Grant Park. Tents rise, and the farmers set out displays of flowers, fresh eggs, curly mushrooms, sourdough, and greens. By mid-morning, the lines to try samples from the chef demonstration or to purchase produce fill the area. Jennifer joins a long line of women who have managed this historically women-led farmers market that now serves thousands of visitors year-round.
Across town, you can find Charmaine Minniefield, an activist, artist, and mom, spending her Sunday at a white clapboard building sitting in the middle of Southview Cemetery. Against the walls of the house, her multimedia collage of words, photos, and videos evokes historic Praise Houses — safe spaces where enslaved and formerly enslaved people once prayed, shouted, and clapped. Her Praise House Project brings these sacred structures to Atlanta sites with ties to the Civil Rights movement.
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Though their work spans different industries and lives span different generations, Charmaine and Jennifer first met through the Sage D Collective leadership cohort, supported by United Way. They soon discovered shared roots in Georgia’s coastal plains — connections that continue to shape their work in Atlanta today.
“My project itself is inspired by the Gullah Geechee culture out of the southeast. It connects both migrations from the rural areas to the urban areas because we all have stories of migration in our family,” said Charmaine. Her Praise House Project invites Atlanta viewers back to Atlantic coast where Praise Houses first originated, to reconnect with our history and the land.
For Jennifer, remaining connected to the land is so important not only culturally, but practically as well. As she knows from her work in food systems, Greater Atlanta is simply not able to produce the amount of food our metro area needs to survive. We’re reliant on rural farmers. Her work in food justice has taken her to farming communities on Sapelo Island, an area that inspired Charmaine’s Praise House art activation, where she helps bring heritage crops like sugarcane into Atlanta markets.
“Food is ingrained in everyone’s lives,” said Jennifer. “We live in a city, but there’s so much more to learn about who we are and where we come from when we leave the city.”
When a women’s leadership coaching cohort fosters a kismet connection
Sage D Collective founder Sagdrina Brown Jalal remembers meeting these two women, and immediately recognizing the threads connecting their work. Today, their partnership is shaping cultural experiences across our city. From food access to historic preservation, their work reminds us of where we came from, builds civic power, and enriches our communities in ways that are only possible because of the cohort that brought them together.
“One of the most important parts of being a part of this community and organizing this work is seeing these beautiful, beautiful sisters who are doing incredible work. Having the opportunity to sit back and see magic happen is really special,” Sagdrina said. “It speaks to our intention around building legacy and remembering. And also taking a multigenerational approach. There is knowledge that needs to be shared both ways, and that is reflected in this particular connection.”
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As Jennifer, Charmaine, and the other women in the cohort continue creating change in Greater Atlanta, we make it possible for Sage D Collective to offer those tangible leadership skill-building opportunities like women’s leadership coaching, training from subject matter experts, access to a coworking space at the Lola, and even microgrant funding for the women’s projects. Nonprofits often call this work “capacity building.” The participants call it growth.
“All of us who are involved are creating a growing, expansive network that — because we are working together — has a greater impact,” said Charmaine. “It crosses all fields and interest areas. I’m in the visual arts and activist spaces. Jennifer’s in food, justice, and advocacy spaces. We have a whole network around a multitude of interests and ideas. But collectively together, it really does create major impact, and models how society can move forward.”
Supporting women’s leadership sits at the heart of our mission to create lasting, community-driven change, and that happens best by centering the voices and leadership of those closest to the work.
Atlanta’s culture and history are built on the backs of women, and your support makes sure these women have access to highquality leadership development resources often reserved for more privileged sectors. When you give to United Way of Greater Atlanta, you fuel the community that makes these connections — and their impact — possible.