Join us celebrating 3 years of Leaders
We are thrilled to invite you to a powerful evening of celebration, recognition, and community transformation!
Join us on Friday, October 17th, 2025 at the Berkshire Innovation Center as we honor the 2025 Blackshires Leadership Cohort—a dynamic group of emerging leaders who have completed a transformative 15-week accelerator program and are now launching bold community projects and businesses with the support of $2,000 completion grants.
This evening is more than a ceremony—it’s a tribute to vision, grit, and collective impact. We’ll also be lifting up you—our incredible community of partners, funders, and collaborators—whose unwavering support has helped make this award-winning program a regional beacon of empowerment and innovation.
Event Highlights Include:
- Inspiring remarks from community leaders & graduates
- Presentation of Completion Grants
- Special recognitions for our supporters & Fishbowl partners
- Networking, food, music, and joyful celebration
Date: Friday, October 17th, 2025
Time: 5:00 – 7:30 PM
Location: Berkshire Innovation Center, Pittsfield, MA
Come celebrate what we’ve built together—and what’s still to come.
Please RSVP to reserve your spot at this momentous occasion. We can’t wait to welcome you and share in this milestone together.
What is the Blackshires?
Blackshires Community Empowerment Foundation, a BIPOC-led platform for community-rooted leadership and inclusive community and economic development
How it WOrks
We fuse strategy, storytelling, and solidarity to build power and prosperity for historically excluded communities.
Scaling Change through Distributive Leadership Development
Developing Institutions, Strategy, and Systems
Stay up to date with the latest research-backed ideas, systems and strategies though online and offline education.
Community ID3A Jams
Evidence and Data based Solutions
Connect through unique experiences combining networking with social events. Done right, events can be a powerful catalyst for connections between communities.
Culture Shift Summit
Creative visionaries coming together to cultivate ideas, build connections, and develop a comprehensive blueprint for a thriving future.
Technology
Connecting Community though Innovation
Connect through unique experiences combining networking with social events. Done right, events can be a powerful catalyst for connections between communities.
