Oasis Emerging Leaders Advisory Board · Ages 13–24
Young people don't just have a voice here. They have a vote.
A youth governance body — young people who came up through our Pathways and now help lead them. They hold a formal seat shaping the direction of Petersburg Is Growing: reviewing our work, surfacing what young people are really experiencing, and helping decide what we do next.
Why It Matters
Brought in to decide.
Most organizations bring young people in to observe. We bring them in to decide. A young person consulted for their opinion and a young person trusted with a real decision are treated with two very different levels of respect — and only the second grows a leader. The Advisory Board is where our young people learn governance, accountability, and the weight of real responsibility.
Where It Leads
The mic, the vote, and the future.
The Advisory Board is a stage in our leadership pipeline — from a child's first day on the farm, to Rising Leader, to Emerging Leader, to a seat at the table, to one day directing the funds that support our whole community through the Oasis Flow Fund Circle. A young person who begins here at 13 can be helping govern the ecosystem — and invest in it — by their early twenties.
This is what it looks like to grow your own leaders: not to speak for young people, but to hand them the mic, the vote, and the future.
The Youth Leadership Pipeline
Four stages — from first FUNction to grantmaker.
Stage 1 · Ages 5–12
Rising Leaders Fellowship
Being filled — land, identity, culture, and belonging. Rising Leaders begin at Melanin Magic School and FUNctions on the Farm, with journeys reaching Washington, DC and Mother Africa.
Stage 2 · Ages 13–19
Emerging Leaders Fellowship
Pouring out — community service, financial assets, business planning, and real-world exposure that turns growers into practitioners.
Stage 3 · Ages 13–24
Emerging Leaders Advisory Board
Governing — a formal seat advising the P.I.G. Board on youth programs and strategy. Today's seat at the table for young people who came up through the work.
Stage 4 · Ages 13–25
Oasis Flow Fund Circle
Grantmaking — nine young people awarding $20,000 in Flow Fund grants to Petersburg organizations and projects promoting growth.
A young person who walks this entire pipeline — from their first FUNction on the farm to the day they sign their name on a grant check to a Petersburg nonprofit — is not just a success story. They are the village rising. They are Petersburg growing.
Oasis Flow Fund Circle · Pipeline Stage 4
Young people deciding where the money goes.
The Oasis Flow Fund Circle is the pinnacle of the Youth Leadership Pipeline — a youth-led participatory grantmaking cohort of nine young Petersburgers, ages 13–25, who come together for one year to do something most adults in their community have never done: decide where the money goes.
For the 2027 cohort, the circle will award $20,000 in grants to organizations and projects promoting positive growth in Petersburg, Virginia. These are real dollars, real decisions, and real impact on the community that raised these young people.
Young people who once received from this community become the ones who give back to it — with intention, wisdom, and real resources.
Circle size
9 members — competitive, intimate
Ages
13–25 (Advisory Board members and graduates)
Duration
Winter Solstice to Winter Solstice — Dec 21, 2026 to Dec 21, 2027
2027 fund
$20,000 in grants for Petersburg (tri-city area welcome)
Meetings
Monthly, for twelve months
Decision authority
Circle members vote — one equal vote each
What is a flow fund?
A flow fund is participatory grantmaking built on trust — bottom-up and community-driven, not top-down and institutional. Money should flow where the community knows it is needed, not where institutions assume it is needed. The Oasis Flow Fund Circle applies that model through a youth lens: the young people of Petersburg set the North Star, vet the organizations, vote, issue the grants, and watch the impact ripple outward.
This grew out of the New Standard Flow Fund — the local circle that modeled the practice and made the first impact investment that helped launch ours. Hear Episode 2 of Kindle Project's Misgivings podcast below.
Prefer another app? Spotify · Apple Podcasts · Kindle Project
Learning partner
The Kindle Project
Teaches the circle the history, philosophy, and process of flow funds — and the potential of participatory grantmaking to transform how communities resource themselves.
Founding mentor
New Standard Flow Fund
The local flow fund whose members seeded the Oasis Flow Fund Circle and continue to mentor it — local nonprofit leaders who believed in Petersburg's young people before those young people had ever made a grant.
Grantee focus areas
- Youth development & leadership
- Entrepreneurship & economic empowerment
- Mental health
- Health & wellness
- The circle's own annual North Star priorities
Applications · Summer 2026
Two ways in.
Grantee applications and circle member applications (direct or by nomination) open in Summer 2026. Until the online application portals go live on this site, reach out and we will get you the forms.
Join the circle
Circle members are drawn from Advisory Board members and graduates, fellowship alumni, and community leaders ages 13–25 who are aligned with P.I.G.'s mission — applied directly or nominated by someone who knows their work.
Apply for a grant
Organizations and projects must be promoting positive growth in the Petersburg, Virginia community (tri-city area welcome). The core requirement is simple: are you making Petersburg better?