Building Leaders From the Inside Out: A Case Study with BHSSC

The Partner

Black Hills Special Services Cooperative (BHSSC) is a public cooperative headquartered in Rapid City, South Dakota. Their work spans five divisions: community and family services, developmental disabilities programs, education and workforce development, health and human services, and educational technology. They serve twelve public school districts across western South Dakota, including Indigenous communities throughout the region. Their mission is to build stronger communities by helping individuals and organizations reach their full potential. When they approached Coaction Collective, they turned that same commitment inward, investing in their own people with the same intentionality they bring to the communities they serve.

The Challenge

BHSSC has talented and dedicated staff. What they wanted was a structure to grow that talent deliberately. Their people were already leading, managing teams, driving programs, and shaping organizational culture. The goal was a sustained experience that matched the ambition of the people already in the building and gave them the space, the coaching, and the tools to go further.

The Approach

Coaction Collective designed and facilitated the PREVAILing Leaders Program, an 18-month cohort experience now in its third iteration. The program runs two tracks simultaneously: leadership development and design thinking. Participants are not just studying how to lead. They are leading a real organizational change project from start to finish.

Diana Suarez and Justin Stephens led the foundational work for Cohort III. They launched the cohort virtually in January 2025 and facilitated a listening tour that gave participants direct experience with the first phase of the design thinking process. Early sessions covered leadership philosophy, managing up, delegation, and diagnosing skill and will in the people they supervise. The work centered on what it means to take a coaching stance as a manager, not just a directing one.

From there, sessions built on each other across virtual and in-person formats. Cohort members worked through the GROW coaching model, prototyping, and implementation planning. Each session advanced both tracks: sharper leadership practice and a capstone project grounded in something BHSSC actually needed.

The Closeout

On May 28, 2026, Dr. Michael Andrews and Justin Stephens will travel to Rapid City to close out Cohort III. Participants will present their capstone projects to the full cohort. Eighteen months of work, on display. The presentations are not just a program requirement. They are evidence that these leaders listened, made sense of what they heard, built something in response, and saw it through.

What This Work Represents

Three cohorts. Three years. BHSSC now has a replicable model they can sustain. That is what capacity building actually means: not delivering content and leaving, but building something that outlasts the engagement. The PREVAILing Leaders Program works because it is embedded in real work, sustained over time, and led by facilitators who are invested in the people in the room.

If your organization has leaders who are ready to go further and you want a development experience built around their actual work, we want to hear from you. The PREVAILing Leaders model is research-informed, adaptable, and designed to produce both stronger leaders and real organizational change. Reach us at hello@coactioncollective.com. 

Coaction Collective is a national consultancy specializing in family and community engagement, leadership development, and equity-centered systems change. Learn more at coactioncollective.com.