Launching Fall 2025 Proudly Serving Greater Grand Rapids Area Schools
Launching Fall 2025 Proudly Serving Greater Grand Rapids Area Schools
An afterschool program designed to empower Black girls in grades 6–12, while creating a safe and affirming space where all youth can find belonging, leadership development, and wellness support.
Our program is culturally rooted and healing-centered, with a focus on identity, wellness, leadership, and liberation. We go beyond academics by nurturing the whole person—helping youth build confidence, discover their voice, and thrive despite systemic barriers.
At LeadHERship Impact, students are encouraged to show up fully, build community, and gain real-world tools to shape their futures. Through mentorship from trusted BIPOC leaders, creative expression, and holistic life-skill development, we help youth lead with confidence, clarity, and cultural pride.
Whether navigating school, healing from trauma, or exploring new opportunities, all students are welcomed into a safe, affirming community that celebrates their strengths and nurtures their growth.
Mission
We equip Black girls and young women in grades 6–12, by providing culturally responsive, healing-centered afterschool programming to foster belonging, leadership, and wellness so they can lead lives of purpose, confidence, and power.
Vision
We envision a world where Black girls, young women, and youth of color are safe, celebrated, and supported to lead with confidence, grounded in who they are, connected to their purpose, and free to thrive.
Core Values
Love: We lead with radical, affirming love that nurtures connection, healing, and belonging creating space to be fully seen and valued.
Rest: We honor rest as a necessary practice of liberation and self-preservation, especially for Black girls who are often asked to carry too much.
Peace Over Perfection: We release the need to prove, perform, or perfect. We create space for authenticity, self-acceptance, and grace.
Access: We are committed to breaking down barriers ensuring every girl has access to opportunity, mentorship, and resources that reflect her needs and culture.
Joyful Identity & Discovery: We center joy, cultural pride, and self-exploration as essential to healing, growth, and the discovery of one’s purpose and power
Every dollar, hour, and connection fuels her leadership journey. Here’s how you can support the mission of LeadHERship Impact:
Walk alongside a girl on her journey. Be present, offer guidance, encouragement, and a listening ear as she grows in confidence and purpose.
Whether you’re a speaker, event planner, artist, or educator your talents can make a difference. Help us create transformative experiences she won’t forget.
Join us as a school, church, organization, or business. Together, we can build a stronger network of support and liberation rooted in community, equity, and collective care.
LeadHERship Impact is a social impact entity.Your gifts helps us create safe, empowering spaces for Black girls in grades 6–12 to lead, heal, and thrive.
Give today, fuel her future.
Lariesha Lee, LLMSW- Founder & Executive Director
You are not what you’ve been through, you are what you choose to become.”
I became a teen mom at 17, just as I was thriving as Miss Lake County, a student-athlete, and a young leader known for my community service and big dreams. When I found out I was pregnant, everything changed, how others saw me and how I saw myself.
By 23, I had three children, no degree, and was struggling to survive. At 26, I made the decision to reclaim my life. I went back to college, began my healing journey, and chose not to let struggle be my final story.
My early hope came from the Young Ambassadors Art of Leadership (YAAOL) program in Lake County, Michigan. Despite being one of the poorest counties in the state, that program gave me mentorship, community, and the courage to dream again. Mentors like Mary Trucks believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself.
Today, I’m a Clinical Therapist, educator, speaker, and facilitator with over 16 years of experience in social work, education, and leadership. I am passionate about women’s wellness, mental health education, and empowering others through healing-centered engagement and psychoeducation. My work focuses on supporting women through pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting transitions, and creating spaces where stories of resilience are met with compassion and growth.
I currently serve as a therapist at LeadHERWell Village, where I integrate holistic and nature-based approaches to mental health. I’m also the founder of LeadHERship Impact, a nonprofit dedicated to mentoring young Black women through culturally rooted support, leadership development, and identity formation.
Whether I’m facilitating groups, leading workshops, or speaking to audiences about healing and empowerment, my mission is the same, to help others see that they are more than their pain and capable of becoming who they were always meant to be.
It’s not what they call you, it’s what you answer to.