PROGRAMS
SOCIAL JUSTICE LEADERSHIP INSTITUTE
Register today for our 2025-2026 Social Justice Leadership Institutes!​
Introductory Retreat: On Saturday and Sunday December 6th - 7th, 2025 at Phillips Academy Andover.
Advanced Retreat: Saturday, February 21, 2026 at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, MA.
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Introductory Retreat Early Bird Registration: We offer discounted Early Bird registration ($475/student) until October 10th, 2025. Final registration ($525/student) closes November 21st, 2025. Your school's payment is due by December 3rd, 2025.
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Advanced Retreat Early Bird Registration: We offer discounted Early Bird registration ($425/student) until January 7th, 2026. Final registration ($450/student) closes February 10th, 2026. Your school's payment is due by February 17th, 2026.
Please note: participation in the Introductory retreat, or equivalent social justice leadership experience, is a pre-requisite for students registering for the Advanced retreat.
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Become an SJLI Host!
SJLI depends on partner independent schools to host this program. As current hosts of the Introductory and Advanced retreats respectively, Phillip's Academy Andover and Cushing Academy lead in securing safe spaces for youth to unravel personal experiences and discuss complex ideologies. Partner hosts have been instrumental in underpinning the significance of social and racial justice for the last decade. In return, SJLI graduates bring back principles in creating long-lasting cultures of inclusion for their schools. Past hosts have included Phillips Academy Andover, Governor's Academy, Concord Academy and Northfield Mount Hermon School.
Some Additional Benefits:
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Larger cohort of students in attendance and additional leadership opportunities for students
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Bundled offers for the Introductory and Advanced retreat​
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Access to a network of DEI Admin committed to building out systems of belonging across the New England independent school ecosystem
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Pathways for youth and young adults to deeper engagement in Boston's organizing ecosystem
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Please reach out if you are interested in becoming a host school for a future SJLI! Contact Cynthia, Director of Youth Leadership Programs, at cynthia@thecityschool.org.
Chaperone Orientation
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Point of contact for either Fall or Winter SJLI retreat sessions agrees to follow through with our SJLI orientation which goes over our approach to justice, program expectations, partner responsibilities, and identifying students who are a good fit.
What is the Social Justice Leadership Institute?
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The Social Justice Leadership Institute
(SJLI) is a two session accelerated
social justice program focused on
racial and social justice, systemic
political analysis, community
leadership, organizing skills, and
network transformation tools. SJLI
supports high school students to
acquire a deeper understanding of
how systems of anti-Black racism,
classism, sexism, cissexism,
heterosexism impact their lives and
the lives of their peers.
Our interactive retreats join student
leaders from top New England
independent schools to learn,
connect and take action with the
support of our experienced multi-racial, majority BIPOC staff team. In our Introductory, weekend-long SJLI retreat, students get the opportunity to deeply explore topics of racial, gender, economic and queer justice, and develop skills around organizing and action on campus. Students leave the weekend with stronger frameworks and tools for analysis of systems of power and privilege, and increased motivation and community to support action.
In our one day Advanced SJLI retreat, students practice concrete leadership and community organizing skills, such as facilitation, workshop design, base-building, action development and more. Students will receive small group and one-to-one coaching, networking opportunities with peers, and support to take action around racial and social justice at their school.
In line with our values of racial justice, our program is race-explicit and uses race as a leading frame that intersects with all other identities. In our Introductory retreat, we break into the following affinity groups: race affinity, race and gender affinity and race and sexual orientation affinity.
What will students gain from our Introductory retreat?
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A stronger systemic framework around how anti-Black racism, racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism and cissexism impact you and your peers
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A transformative community-building experience in a majority BIPOC space that energizes and motivates you around racial and social justice work
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Practice with public speaking and community building in order to take increased leadership roles on your campus
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Access to a larger network of social justice leaders within independent schools in New England
​What will students gain from our Advanced retreat?​
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Organizing tools to address racism, anti-Black racism, classism, sexism, cissexism and heterosexism at your school
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Concrete practice on leadership and campus organizing skills
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Access to a larger network of social justice leaders within independent schools in New England.
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Who should come to SJLI?
A participant is a good fit for our program if they are interested in the following: political education, popular education, community-centered justice practices, building cross-racial solidarity, and intersectional racial affinity work. Participants must be willing to engage in a race-explicit space that challenges power and privilege based on race, and to reflect on and talk about their experiences of power and privilege based on race. SJLI supports non-Black young people of color and white young people to be accountable around non-Black privilege.
WHAT ARE SJLI PARTICIPANTS SAYING?
"My school tends to be really fake social justice-y and I thought that SJLI would be the same but it wasn’t in the slightest. I think that the facilitators did a really good job of making sure the content was productive."